How Thread is Numbered.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 314, 7 November 1888, Page 3

How Thread is Numbered.

Evfc.Ryr.ouY knows the sizes of thread. Every seamstress knows whether she wants No. 30 or 60 ov 120, and knows, when she hears the number, about what is the si/c ob the stxand rpterred to ; but how the numbers happen to be what they are, and iust what 'they mean (.savs bhe New York • Mail' and Express ') nob one person in a thousand knows. And yet it is a simple matter to explain, Ava-5 the infot malion accorded to a re porter by an employe o f o n c o f th c largest spool cotton manufactories in the United States. When»B4o yards of yarn weigh 7,000 grains, a pound of cotton, the yarn is No. 1. [f 1,680 yards weigh a pound ifc will bo No. 2 yarn. For iNo. 50 yam it would take 60 multiplied by 840 yards to weigh a pound. Thi& is the whole of the yarn measurement. The early manufactured thread was three-cord, and bhe thread took its number from the number of the yarn from which it was made. No. 60 yarn made No. 60 thread, though in point of fact bhe actual calibre of No. 60 thread would equal No. 20 yarn, being three 60 strands. When the sewing-machine came into the market as the great consumer, unreasoning iv its> work and inexorable in its demands for mechanical accuracy, six-cord cotton bad- to be made as a smoother product. As thread numbers were already established, they were not altered for the new article, and No. 60 six-cord and No. 60 three- cord are identical in size as in number. To oft'ecb this the six-cord has to be made of yarn twice as firm as that demanded by the three-cord. The No. 60 six-cord would be six strands of No. 120 yarn. Three-cord spool cotton is the same number as the yarn is made of. Six-cord spool cotton is double its number. As simplo a thing as thread i&, there are 2,000 different kinds made.

Mistress to Servant : Did you tell those ladies at the door Uiafc I was not at home ? Servant : Yes, mum. Mistress : What did they say ? Servant : How foitinit !