The main distinction between cottons in the pod, is that of the black seeded, and the green seeded; for the former part with their downy wool very readily to a pair of simple rollers, made to revolve nearly in contact, by the power of the human arm; while the latter retain the wool with much force, and require to be ginned, as the operation is called, by a powerful revolving circular saw-mechanism, usually driven by horse or water power. After the cotton wool is thus separated from the seeds, it is packed in large canvas bags, commonly with the aid of a screw or hydraulic press, into a very dense bale, for the convenience of transport. Each of the American bags contains about 340 lbs. of cotton wool. When this cotton is delivered to the manufacturer, it is so foul and flocky, that he must clean and disentangle it with the utmost care, before he can subject it to the carding operation.

[Fig. 317.] A B, is a roller, about 9 inches in diameter, which revolves in the direction of the arrow. This cylinder consists of a parallel series of oblique pointed circular saws made fast to one axis, and parted from each other by wooden rings nearly one inch and a half in thickness. Above the cylinder is a kind of hopper E F, into which ginner throws the seed cotton, which falls upon a grating, up though which small segments of the saw-teeth project, so as to lay hold of the fibres in their revolution, and pull them through, while the seeds being thus separated, roll down the slope of the grid, to be discharged from the spout I K. M is a cylindrical brush placed below the grating, which revolves against the saw teeth, so as to clear them of the adhering cotton filaments.

The willow, which was originally a cylindrical willow basket, whence its name, but is now a box made of wood, with revolving iron spikes, is the first apparatus to which cotton wool is exposed, after it has been opened up, picked, and sorted by hand or a rake, in what is called a bing. The willow exercises a winnowing action, loosens the large flocks, and shakes out much of the dirt contained in them. The frame of the willow is about 2 feet wide, and turns with its spikes at the rapid rate of 600 revolutions per minute, whereby it tosses the cotton about with great violence. The heavy impurities fall down through the grid bottom. It is exposed, however, for only a few minutes to the action of this machine. For factories which work up chiefly the coarser and fouler cottons of India, and Upland Georgia, the conical self-acting willow, as constructed by Mr. Lillie at Manchester, is much employed. In it, the cotton is put in at the narrow end of the truncated cone, which, being spiked, and revolving rapidly within a nearly concentric case upon a horizontal axis, wafts it on towards the wide end, while its impurities are partly shaken out through the grid or perforated bottom, and partly sucked up through revolving squirrel wire cages, by the centrifugal action of a fan. This is a powerful automatic engine, deserving the study of the curious, and is as safe as it is powerful. The cone of this huge machine makes from 400 to 600 turns per minute, and will clean 7200 pounds, or 24 bags, in a day.

After shaking out the grosser impurities by the willow, the cotton spinner proceeds to separate each individual filament of cotton wool from its fellow, so as to prepare it for carding, and to free it from every particle of foreign matter, whether lighter or heavier than itself. This second operation is performed by what are called batting (beating), scutching, and blowing machines, which are all now much the same, whatever difference of signification the name may have. Indeed, each machine not only beats, scutches, but blows. [Fig. 318.] exhibits a longitudinal section of a good blowing engine of modern construction. The machine is about 18 or 19 feet long, and three feet across within the case. The whole frame is made of cast-iron, lined with boards, forming a close box, which has merely openings for introducing the raw cotton wool, for taking out the cleansed wool, and removing the dust as it collects at the bottom. These doors are shut during the operation of the machine, but may be opened at pleasure, to allow the interior to be inspected and repaired.

[Fig. 318 enlarged] (120 kB)

The introduction of the cotton is effected by means of an endless cloth or double apron, which moves in the direction of the arrow a a, at the left end of the [figure], by passing round the continually revolving rollers at b and c. The two rollers at e, being the ones which immediately introduce the cotton into the jaws, as it were, of the machine, are called the feed rollers. The batting arm, or revolving diameter, f e, turns in the direction of the arrow, and strikes the flocks violently as they enter, so as to throw down any heavy particles upon the iron grating or grid at n, while the light cotton filaments are wafted onwards with the wind, from the rotation of the scutcher in the direction of arrow a′, along the second travelling apron, upon which the squirrel cage cylinder presses, and applies the cotton in the form of a lap. Above the cylindric cage h, which turns in the direction of its arrow, there is a pipe k, the continuation of the case i. This pipe, though broken off in the figure, communicates by a branch pipe with an air-sucking fan ventilator, not seen in this figure, but explained under [Foundry]. The cage h, by its rotation, presses down, as we have said, the half-cleaned cotton upon the cloth a′, which carries it forward to the second scutcher f′, by the second set of feed rollers e′. The second scutcher throws down the heavy dust upon the second grid n′, through which it falls upon the bottom of the case. The first scutcher makes about 1280 strokes of each of its two arms in a minute; the second 1300. The feed rollers for each are fluted. The feed cloth is either sustained by a board, or is made of parallel spars of wood, to secure it against bagging, which would render the delivery of the cotton irregular. The feed rollers make 8 turns in the minute, and as their diameter is 11⁄2 inches, they will introduce 8 times their circumference, or 37·7 inches of the cotton spread upon the apron in that time. Upon every 12th part of an inch of the cotton, therefore, nearly 3 blows of the scutcher arm will be applied. The second feed rollers move relatively with more slowness, so that for every 2·4 blows of the scutcher, only one twelfth of an inch of cotton wool is presented.