PREP OPERATION consists of four steps:
1. WILLOWING = Wool or cotton bales are opened and put through a willowing frame or picker machine with spiked cylinders that are rotated rapidly to loosen the fibres.
2. LAPPING = Rollers compress tufts of fibres to create flat sheets of wool or cotton called laps.
3. CARDING = Revolving drum with spikes is used to comb the lap and form 1.5 inch ropes called slivers.
4. DRAWING = Two sets of rollers stretch four slivers into a single sliver.  These straighter fibres have more consistent thickness and weight.  Repetitive use of slubbing, intermediate, and roving frames produced higher quality slivers to be used in the spinning operation.

SPINNING OPERATION includes winding these stretched slivers on bobbins and passing them through rollers to spindles to again stretch and twist the yarn to produce a weaving thread (aka warp thread).  Two types of machines (the self-acting mule and the ring frame) were used.  The mule produced a softer and higher quality thread because it placed less tension on the yarn and did not twist it as much.  The operation of the mule required considerable skill and female labor was most often used.  The ring frame produced a coarser material that was not suitable for cloth where “feel” was important. It was a simpler machine than the mule to operate and was usually run by men.  The ring frame operated continuously while the mule worked in an intermittent fashion.  Sewing thread (aka twist thread) was made by a process called “doubling” where several weaving threads were twisted together to provide greater strength.  Sewing thread might also be dyed at this stage.  Weaving thread might be bleached (boiled in caustic soda and soaked in chloride of lime and water) and dried.  Other steps performed on “warp thread” were:
1. WINDING was taking the required lengths of thread to re-wind onto warpers’ bobbins. Take cones of thread by the hundred and organize them to make the warp ready for weaving. The beam is a huge bobbin.
2. WARPING OR BEAMING produces a set of threads for weaving.  Warp thread is transferred from bobbins onto beams (rollers with flanges at both ends).  The beams of thread are passed through a tank containing sizing liquid (to strengthen the thread to withstand the stresses of weaving).  After drying, the strengthened strands of warp thread are put through holes in “healds and “reeds” and they are knotted.  The number of parallel threads knotted on the “healds and “reeds” determine the width of the woven cloth.

WEAVING OPERATION is the lifting and lowering of alternate sets of parallel warp (vertical) threads and passing a shuttle carrying a single weft (horizontal) thread back and forth between them.

FINISHING OPERATION for gray colored cloth that emerges from the looms (if it is not sold as gray goods) includes bleaching, if the warp thread had not previously been bleached, and can include two other steps to add color to the cloth.
1. DYEING is using natural or synthetic colors that are fixed onto the cloth using steam.
2. PRINTING is pressing wooden blocks with raised patterns onto the cloth.  Precise positioning was achieved using pins that protruded through the cloth and positioned the blocks.  In 1783 Thomas Bell invented roller printing that used a copper cylinder with a pattern engraved on it.