The very fact of uniting 10 or 12 slivers at the feed of the
finisher card mixes 10 or 12 distinct lengths into another new length,
and, in addition, separates in some measure the fibres of each
individual sliver. It must not be taken for granted that the new
length of sliver is identical with each of the individual lengths
and ten or twelve times as bulky. A process of drafting takes place
in the finisher card, so that the fibres which compose the combined
10 or 12 slivers shall be drawn out to a draft of 8 to 16 or even
more; this means that for every yard of the group of slivers which
passes into the machine there is drawn out a length of 8 to 16 yards
or whatever the draft happens to be. The resulting sliver will
therefore be approximately two-thirds the bulk of each of the
original individual slivers. The actual ratio between them will
obviously depend upon the actual draft which is imparted to the
material by the relative velocities of the feed and delivery rollers.

It is only natural to expect that a certain amount of the fibrous
material will escape from the rollers; this forms what is known as
card waste. And in all subsequent machines there is produced, in
spite of all care, a percentage of the amount fed into the machine
which is not delivered as perfect material. All this waste from
various sources, e.g. thread waste, rove waste, card waste, ropes,
dust-shaker waste, etc., is ultimately utilized to produce sliver
for heavy sacking weft.

The dust-shaker, as its name implies, separates the dust from the
valuable fibrous material, and finally all the waste products are
passed through a waste teazer such as that made by Messrs. J. F. Low &
Co., Ltd., Monifieth, and illustrated in Fig. 16. The resulting mass