What is a cotton doubler please?

[maggiefishblue]

One of my ancestors is described as a 'Cotton Doubler' on the 1881 census and I was wondering what that particular job entailed.

I did a Rootschat search and found loads of census info. with people's occupations down as cotton doublers - but no explanation about the job.

My ancestor lived in Nuneaton, Warwickshire - which, as far as I'm aware (but I might be wrong here  ) was not a town with cotton mills.

Any help or suggestions gratefully received 

Maggie

[stanmapstone]

DOUBLING: (I) The process of combining two or more strands of ROVING or SLIVER and drawing out the resulting strand. The purpose of this operation is to increase the uniformity of the cotton strand and, ultimately of the YARN made from it. (II) The act of winding two or more strands of YARN onto one PACKAGE without twisting them.
DOUBLING MACHINE: A machine which folds cloth to half or quarter of its original width.
Stan

[yonderpeasant]

try
Nuneaton Online
for cotton doubler.Nuneaton was mainly in silk but there is a mill here.

Moderator comment: URL altered to act as a link

[maggiefishblue]

Thank you Stan for the definition - it makes more sense now 

Thank you yonderpeasant for the web site - there's loads of interesting stuff on it.

Maggie 

[behindthefrogs]

My set of old occupations defines a doubler as someone who operates a machine which twists two or more strands of cotton fibre together to form a thread.  I think this is probably the same as Stan's first definition.

David

[maggiefishblue]

Thanks David - it does sound like a similar definition to Stan's. 

I feel that I am more knowledgable on the subject of cotton doubling now 

Maggie