When it is desired to use the cotton, it should be pulled down vertically from the face of the "mixing," so as to secure a fair portion from each bale composing the mixture. Before spreading the cotton out it is usually pulled into pieces of moderate size by the hands of the operative.
During recent years it has become the very general practice to use a small machine called the "Bale Breaker" or "Cotton Puller," and to have also working in conjunction with this machine long travelling "lattices" called "mixing lattices." These perform the operation of "pulling" and "mixing" the cotton much more quickly and effectively than by hand labour.
The "Cotton Puller" or "Bale Breaker" (see [Fig. 12]) simply consists, in its most useful form, of four pairs of coarsely fluted or spiked rollers of about 6 inches diameter with a feed apron or lattice such as is shown in the illustration.
Fig. 12.—Bale breaker or puller.
The method adopted with the "Bale Breaker" and "mixing lattices" in use is as follows:—
The various bales of cotton intended for "mixing" are placed very near to the feed apron of the Bale Breaker, and a layer from each bale in succession is placed on the apron. The latter feeds the cotton at a slow rate to the revolving rollers of the machine, and as each pair of top and bottom rollers that the cotton meets is revolving more rapidly than the preceding pair, the result is a pulling asunder of the cotton by the rollers, into much smaller pieces, quite suitable for the next machine. The Bale Breaker delivers the cotton upon long travelling aprons of lattice work, which carry the cotton away and deposit it upon any desired portion of the floor to form the "mixing."
Opening.—The name of the next process, viz., "opening," has been given it because its primary function is "to open" out the cotton to such an extent that the greater bulk of the seed, leaf, sand, and dust is readily extracted. The details of this machine and indeed practically of all machines used in cotton spinning, vary so much with different makers, that it would be utterly out of place to deal with them here, so that it may be said at once, that all such points are entirely omitted from this treatment of the subject.
The essential and principal portions of the machines are practically identical for all makers, and it is with these only that it is proposed to deal, taking in all cases the best present-day practice.
The opener, then, is a very powerful machine, being in fact the most powerful used in cotton spinning, and the most important feature of the machine is the employment of a strong beater, to which is fitted a large number of iron or steel knives or spikes. These beat down the cotton and open it at a terrific rate, the beater having a surface speed of perhaps 4000 feet a minute. Various fans, rollers, and other parts are employed to feed the cotton to the beater, and to take it away again after treatment. It will perhaps best serve the purpose of our readers if the passage of the cotton be described through an opener of the most modern and approved construction, dealing with the subject in non-technical terms.