19 



feeder itself, which in turn rests upon the top of the gin stand. The 

 seed cotton is separated from the air current by the screen, where it 

 becomes dead and drops into the closed hopper, the mass passing gradu- 

 ally between fluted rollers, from which it is received by a picker roller 

 making about 170 revolutions per minute. As each lock of cotton 

 reaches the picker roller it is revolved many times, being beaten against 

 a curved screen which has generally a clear opening of one-third of an 

 inch. It is then discharged directly into the breast of the gin stand. 

 The screen and all other parts mentioned are inclosed in tight casting, 

 so that the weevils that may be contained in the seed cotton must 

 either be removed by the action of the picker roller upon the screen 

 or pass with the seed cotton into the gin breast. As is shown on 

 page 14, about YO per cent of the weevils are separated by the cleaner 

 feeder and about 30 per cent pass into the gin, from which they are 

 thrown out either with the seed or with the motes. In case they pass 

 through the screen with the general trash, they fall directly upon the 

 spiral conveyor, which is continuous from one end of the battery of 

 gins to the other, and are discharged into a spout leading to a trash 

 receptacle, usually placed below. In plain feeder gins, however, as 

 has been noted, this trash is either deposited at the rear of the gin, or 

 is carried to the seed conveyor through which it is blown or carried 

 with the seed to the cars or seed house as may be desired. To sum- 

 marize, with the pneumatic and cleaner feeder system, there are three 

 avenues for the escape of the boll weevils. 



(1) Any specimens that may be drawn by the suction of the fan 

 through the screen above the hopper would have to pass through the 

 fan, which ordinarily makes from 1,500 to 2,000 revolutions per 

 minute. Experiments have proven that they are killed under such 

 circumstances. 



(2) Any weevils that remain in the seed cotton as it is driven by the 

 revolving picker roller against the screen at the rear will pass with 

 the seed cotton directly into the breast of the gin and upon the roll 

 of seed cotton which is rotating at all times during the operation of 

 ginning. After reaching this situation, they may pass along with the 

 seed into the seed conveyor, or be thrown out at the mote board, or 

 pass with the lint to the baling machinery, as has been proven by 

 experiments, the details of which have been given in preceding 

 paragraphs. 



(3) All weevils separated from the seed cotton by the action of the 

 picker roller in beating against the cleaning screen must be confined 

 to the space below the screen. As there is no other avenue of escape, 

 they must fall upon the spiral conveyor and thus be carried to the 

 outer end of the battery of gins, where, as before stated, with most 

 gins, all the trash is conveyed through a spout leading directly into 

 the seed conveyor. 



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