[Letter from Edward R. Thompson, Jr. to Harris Leon Kempner, June 29, 1964] Page: 1 of 2
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3M 9-62 K
OFFICE LETTER
FROM Edward R. Thompson, Jr. DATE June 29, 1964
To Harris L. Kempner RE: Lubbock Trip
On June 25th, Bo Taylor and I visited the Pilot Spinning Laboratory at Texas Tech,
in Lubbock. There is only one other such installation in America at Clemson. The
installation consists of models, some regulation size and some miniature size of all
the various machines found in the normal production line of a spinning and weaving
mill. These machines are used for two purposes. Primarily by the textile engineer-
ing students of Texas Tech in learning the business but also by the test laboratory as
a public service. They are, for instance, taking a bale of cotton and running it through
all of the processes including weaving, dying or bleaching, in order to test the various
properties. Primary value of this kind of test is with new seed where the various
spinability properties of the new growth can be analyzed. However, there are other
applications which have been and which are continuing to be applied. For instance,
they have definitely established a correlation between 1/8" gage Pressley (also called
the stelometer) and yarn breaking strength. They have discovered that the zero gage
Pressley is not anywhere near as accurate in predicting yarn strength.
They are also engaged in doing research for mills who are experiencing some diffi-
culties in one or another of the spinning processes. They told me, for instance, of
a mill which constantly for unascertainable reasons was no lon.er able to spin durable
thread. The mill shipped large quantities of their production from each of the separate
stages of spinning. These were fed into the pilot spinning plant at the appropriate points
and the maladjustments were discovered.
The laboratory is extremely well equipped with modern testing machines: an advance
model of the colorimeter, a new electronic digital fibrograph (which reads staple en-
tierly automatically), three different types of Pressleys, each more "advanced" than
the others (the most recent eliminates a very common operator fBiing - that involved
in tightening the clamps), and tests for various of the most common cotton fungii. It
was with a special interest in this last subject that I went to Lubbock but unfortunately
they were not running any such tests at the moment, and so I could only discuss them.
Moreover, the Pilot Spinning Plant had been dismantled for repairs and Bo who has
never seen any kind of spinning mill, was disappointed in his hopes to do so. Failing
these points of interest, we cut short our trip.
The laboratory is as fully equipped and as competent at United States Testing Labora-
tory in Memphis. Moreover, their charges are substantially less. I would recommend
that we throw some business in their direction when the next need for certified testing
appears. It would also be well to keep this testing service in mind in the event that
we come upon some n\we growth area whose spinning characteristics will be unknown
to our customers. The kind of spinning report which Texas Tech labs could make in
this event would be almost as valuable and probably cheaper in the long run than send-
ing over sufficient quantities to permit our customers to test the cotton for themselves.ERT, Jr. /bs
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Thompson, Edward Randall, Jr. [Letter from Edward R. Thompson, Jr. to Harris Leon Kempner, June 29, 1964], letter, June 29, 1964; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1477028/m1/1/: accessed July 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rosenberg Library.