Continuously fed artificial silk yarn or thread is transported through a treatment zone by feeding the yarn or thread to an inlet to the zone and then forming it into a series of longitudinally spaced open-ended loops and moving the loops through the zone towards an outlet therefrom, the loops during their passage through the zone being caused initially to increase in length, then to remain at a constant length until approaching the outlet of the zone, whereupon the length of the loops is caused to decrease. The yarn or thread may be supported upon a number of elements which are conveyed through the zone along paths which successively intersect, diverge, extend substantially parallel to one another, converge and again intersect. In an example yarns of artificial silk are formed in the chemical spinning portion 10 (Figs. 1 and 2) of the apparatus and are fed from the godet 18 into the treating zone 11 across a fixed yarn-guide 37, which has yarn-spacing grooves longitudinally aligned with yarn-spacing grooves on the cylindrical rod-shaped yarn-supporting elements 26 and 26a, which are rigidly attached to the identical endless conveyers 22 and 22a. These conveyers are driven at equal speeds by means of the driven pulleys or sprockets 27 in such a manner that the respective top runs 23 and 24 are in opposite directions as indicated by arrows in Fig. 1. The conveyers 22a and 22 are in two vertical planes spaced apart laterally so that the paths of travel of the elements 26 and 26a cross one another at lines of intersection 28 and 29 which constitute the inlet and outlet of the zone 11. Thus when the machine is in operation the elements 26 and 26a will alternately cross the line 28 and the yarn from the guide 37 will be picked up alternately by these elements, whose paths of travel then diverge so that the yarns are formed into loops of increasing length until they reach the portion of the zone 11 between the top run 24 of the conveyer 22 and the bottom run of the conveyer 22a. During their passage through this portion of zone 11 the loops remain constant in length, and the yarns are thus transported longitudinally through most of zone 11 held in planar sheets in zig-zag formation. As the elements 26 and 26a carrying the yarns approach the outlet end of zone 11 their paths of travel approach one another so that the yarn loops become shortened, and as these elements 26 and 26a cross the rearward or outlet line of path intersection 29 the yarns Y are released and led across fixed guide 38 to the winding mechanism 12, which exerts sufficient tension on the yarns to keep them in the required alignment. The front portion of the zone 11 is provided with a number of sprayers 30 located between the upper runs of the conveyers and extending across the width of the zone. The <PICT:0690699/IV (a)/1> <PICT:0690699/IV (a)/2> <PICT:0690699/IV (a)/3> <PICT:0690699/IV (a)/4> <PICT:0690699/IV (a)/5> liquids which have been sprayed on the yarns by these sprayers and which drop from the yarn loops are caught by the partitioned trough 33 located between the lower runs of the conveyers. After passing through the liquid-treating section of the zone 11 the yarn is transported through a dryer housing 34 heated by elements such as steam pipes 36. In a modification of the above apparatus a driven belt 50 (Fig. 4) corresponding to the conveyers 22 and 22a supports a number of horizontal rods 51 each of which has rotatably mounted on it a tubular yarn-supporting element 52. The base of each element 52 is provided with a friction wheel 53 rigidly secured thereto, which abuts and rides along a track 54 disposed below the conveyer or belt 50 so that as the elements 52 are transported by the belt 50, they are caused to rotate about their axes. The track 54 may be disposed along the upper surfaces of the friction wheels 53 and/or along predetermined portions of the travel of the elements 52. The surface of track 54 may have a sinuous contour anterior to and in the drying chamber in order to impart to the yarns a vibrating movement which removes some of the liquid adhering to the yarns after their passage through the spraying zone. In the second example the threads which are extruded from the spinnerets 61 (Fig. 5) are led through stationary perforated horizontal yarn guides 71 and 72 towards front intersection line 69 of the paths of travel of the thread supporting rods 68 and 68a. Rods 68 and 68a are fixed rigidly to the belts 66 and 67 respectively in the thread transport and storage zone 65. The belt 66 is located in a vertical plane and has a horizontal top run 66a travelling towards the inlet to the zone 65 and a shorter horizontal lower feed run 66b. The belt 67 has longitudinal runs of equal length both in the same horizontal plane and is mounted on sprockets or pulleys 67a and 67b (Fig. 6), which have vertical axes. The belts 66 and 67 are driven at equal speeds and the spacing of the inner ends of rods 68a equals that of rods 68. The rods 68 and 68a alternately cross the front intersection line 69 and the rear intersection line 70 of their paths of travel. At the front intersection line 69, the yarns are alternately engaged by the elements 68 and 68a and thereby stored in planar sheets in zig-zag formation on the rods 68 which are in the lower run 66b of the belt 66 and on the rods 68a which are in run 67r of horizontal belt 67. As the rods 68 cross the rear intersection line 70, the yarns are released and pass via the stationary thread guide 72 to the winding zone 76. The yarns during their passage through the zone 65 are sprayed with treating and washing liquids from the sprayers 73 and dried while passing through the dryer housing 75. The yarn engaging elements 68 and 68a may be modified in the same manner as shown in Fig. 4. Specification 649,997 is referred to. The Specification as open to inspection under Sect. 91, comprises also a modification in which the conveyers are so located that the two sets of elements have non-intersecting paths and the thread guides at the inlet and outlet of the treating zone are reciprocated horizontally in order to lay the threads in zig-zag formation on the elements and to disengage the threads from the elements at the outlet end. This subject-matter does not appear in the Specification as accepted.ALSO:Continuously-fed artificial silk yarn or thread is transported through a treatment zone by feeding the yarn or thread to an inlet to the zone and then forming it into a series of longitudinally-spaced open ended loops and moving the loops through the zone towards an outlet therefrom, the loops during their passage through the zone being caused initially to increase in length, then to remain at a constant length until approaching the outlet of the zone, whereupon the length of the loops is caused to decrease. The yarn or thread may be supported upon a number of elements which are conveyed through the zone along paths which successively intersect, diverge, extend substantially parallel to one another, converge and again intersect. In an example, yarns of artificial silk are formed in the chemical spinning portion 10 (Figs. 1 and 2) of the apparatus and are fed from the godet 18 into the treating zone 11 across a fixed yarn-guide 37, which has yarn-spacing grooves longitudinally aligned with yarn-spacing grooves on the cylindrical rod-shaped yarn-supporting elements 26 and 26a which are rigidly attached to the identical endless conveyers 22 and 22a. These conveyers are driven at equal speeds by means of the driven pulleys or sprockets 27 in such a manner that the respective top runs 23 and 24 are in opposite directions as indicated by arrows in Fig. 1. The conveyers 22a and 22 are in two vertical planes spaced apart laterally so that the paths of travel of the elements 26 and 26a cross one another at lines of intersection 28 and 29 which constitute the inlet and outlet of the zone 11. Thus when the machine is in operation the elements 26 and 26a will alternately cross the line 28 and the yarn from the guide 37 will be picked up alternately by these elements whose paths of travel then diverge so that the yarns are formed into loops of increasing length until they reach the portion of the zone 11 between the top run 24 of the conveyer 22 and the bottom run of the conveyer 22a. During their passage through this portion of zone 11 the loops remain constant in length, and the yarns are thus transported longitudinally through most of zone 11 held in planar sheets in zig-zag formation. As the elements 26 and 26a carrying the yarns approach the outlet end of zone 11 their paths of travel approach one another so that the yarn loops become shortened <PICT:0690699/IV (c)/1> <PICT:0690699/IV (c)/2> <PICT:0690699/IV (c)/3> <PICT:0690699/IV (c)/4> <PICT:0690699/IV (c)/5> and as these elements 26 and 26a cross the rearward or outlet line of path intersection 29 the yarns Y are released and led across fixed guide 38 to the winding mechanism 12 which exerts sufficient tension on the yarns to keep them in the required alignment. The front portion of the zone 11 is provided with a number of sprayers 30 located between the upper runs of the conveyers and extending across the width of the zone. The liquids which have been sprayed on the yarns by these sprayers and which drop from the yarn loops are caught by the partitioned trough 33 located between the lower runs of the conveyers. After passing through the liquid-treating section of the zone 11 the yarn is transported through a dryer housing 34 heated by elements such as steam pipes 36. In a modification of the above apparatus a driven belt 50 (Fig. 4) corresponding to the conveyers 22 and 22a supports a number of horizontal rods 51 each of which has rotatably mounted on it a tubular yarn-supporting element 52. The base of each element 52 is provided with a friction-wheel 53 rigi