MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 67 



amounted to 46,071 ; the number of mules between thirteen and eighteen to 

 72,220 ; the number of females above thirteen to 387,826 ; and the number 

 of males above eighteen years to 176,400, making a grand aggregate array 

 of 682,497. There were during the half year 1,919 accidents from machin- 

 ery, and fifty-three not due to machinery. 



IMPROVEMENTS IN COTTON SPINNING. 



S. C. Lister and J. "Warburron, of Yorkshire, England, have recently 

 secured an American patent on some important improvements in the spin- 

 ning of yarn from cotton while it is in the wet state. They have discovered 

 that yarn may be advantageously spun from cotton in that state, and it 

 will be stronger and finer than when spun dry. The cotton is wetted, after 

 having been properly carded with warm water, and then spun between gutta 

 percha or leather rollers, these allowing only a certain quantity of moisture 

 to be retained. 



MACHINE FOR GINNING SEA ISLAND COTTON. 



A machine for rapidly ginning Sea Island cotton has been recently in- 

 vented by Mr. L. S. Chichester, of New York, and is said to fully accom- 

 plish the object so long sought to be obtained. It is formed of two rollers, 

 twenty inches long, placed in contact, one above the other. The lower 

 roller, of vulcanized rubber, is three inches in diameter, and gives motion to 

 the upper roller, which is fluted, and made of polished steel one inch and a 

 quarter in diameter. In front of the rollers is an iron plate supported on 

 centres below, extending up nearly to the line of contact of the rollers, ter- 

 minating at the upper edge in a small bead or ledge, and has a rapid motion 

 toward and from the bight of the rollers. The seed cotton is fed over a 

 table, and is carried between the rollers and thrown off behind by a revolv- 

 ing fan, while the seeds are retained in front and ripped out by the combined 

 action of the vibrating-plate and the steel roller. The machine professes to 

 deliver three hundreds pounds of ginned cotton in a day, without crushing a 

 seed. It can be worked by hand if preferred. It saves the expense and loss 

 by drying, sunning and moting, and yields the fibre in unbroken and per- 

 fect condition. The inventor is sanguine that his machine will greatly in- 

 crease the production of Sea Island cotton, which is at present but 50,000 

 bags, of three hundred pounds each. Much of the territory suited to its growth 

 i> unoccupied for lack of a machine that will do for the fine cottons what 

 Whitney's Gin, when first introduced, did for the short staple. 



IMPROVEMENT IN THE PREPARATION OF FLAX FIBRES. 



An Irish improvement in the preparation of flax fibres consists in throw- 

 ing down upon the flax a small quantity of oil, say about an ounce to the 

 pound of flax, which is done by boiling the flax in an alkaline soap ley, 

 washing with water, and then boiling it in water, lightly acidulated with 

 some acid, acetic acid being, perhaps, the most suitable from its exerting 

 no injurious action upon vegetable fibre. The acid decomposes the soap, 

 the fatty constituent of which is left in the fibre, or, perhaps, a mixture of an 



