Abstract: To unravel a terminal portion of a textile yarn, in particular in preparation for joining that yarn to another one by twisting their ends together, an extremity of the yarn is vibrated to loosen the fibers while a part of the yarn spaced from its end is held fast and the yarn extremity is combed or subjected to an aspirated air stream to remove loose fibers. In a preferred arrangement the air stream also causes vibration of a flexible tongue mounted in an air duct alongside the yarn extremity to oscillate its fibers.

Abstract: A device for joining together two ends of a yarn in order to recreate the initial structure of the yarn comprises two heads provided with radial slots and fixed to rods which are rotatable in order to take up the yarn by means of the slots and to wind the yarn about the rods. The free ends of the yarns are untwisted and subjected to electrostatic fields created between the heads and an annular electrode. Rotating the heads in the opposite direction then causes the yarns to unwind from the rods and the fibres of the two ends of the yarn to twist together, the yarn then being released.