How Thread came to have Numbers

Horowhenua Chronicle, 27 March 1911, Page 4

How Thread came to have Numbers

Many a seamstress, whether shewants No. 30, or or 120 thread, knows from the number just what kind of sewing it can be used for. "Wihen 810 yards of yarn weigh 7000 grains, a pound of cotton t the tlireadmakers mark it No. 1. If 1(580 yards weigh a pound it is marked No. 2. R>r No. yarn it would take 50 multiplied 1 by 489 to weigh a pound; this is the wlhole explanation of the yard; measurement as used by the spool cotton manufacturer. The early manufactured thread was of three-cord, the number being derived from tli'e number of yards to- the pound, just as it is to-day. No. (50 yarn, made No. GO thread, though in point of fact the actual caliber of No. 60 thread would equal No. 20 yarn, being made of three No. 20 strands twisted together. When the -sewing machine came into the market, as a great thread consumer, unreasoning in its work and inexorable in its demands for mechanical accuracy, six-rord cotton had to be made in place of the- old: and rougher three-cord, it being niucllii smoother. As thread! nnmbers were already established, they were not altered for the new article and No. 60 six-cord and.No. 60 threecord were left identical in both size and number. To effect this tihe six-cord had to bo made of yarn twice a« lino as tilfiit demanded in making the three-cord variety. The No. 60 cord is mad© of six strands of No. 120 yarn. The'three cord spool cotton is tof the same number as the .yarn is made of. Six-cord! spool cotton is always made from double its number. .. Thread, is a simple thing, but simple as it is, there- are 2000 kinds of it, and each kind'goes through hundreds of different processes. ■', ■■■;■■ ■■.'.-. ■■--'*"';-: ■ ;■