COTTON. 



by llie microscope, they are found to be somewhat 

 !.;st, and tWOdnd or triangular. Their direction is 

 iint straight, l>m contorted. MI iliiit the locks can lie 

 extended or drawn out withoat doing \iiilcncc to the 

 fibres. These threads arc finely toothed, which ex- 

 plains the cause of their adhering together with 

 ijrcaicr facility than lho-c of bombax and - 

 upocyneie, which ;;re destitute of teeth, and which 

 cannot be sj)iin into thread witliottt ail admixture of 

 < o ton. 



In the Southern Slates of the American I'nion, the 

 cotton cultivated is distinguished into tliree kinds 

 the nankeen cuttoii , so called from its colour ; the 

 green send cotton, producing white cotton with 'Teen 

 seeds ; ami t:.e black seed cotton. The two first kinds 

 {row in t;ie middle and upper country, and are called 

 short staple cotton ; the last is cultivated in the lower 

 country, near the sea. and on the Mcs near the shore, 

 and produces cotton of a fine, white, siiky appear- 

 ance, very .strong, and of a long staple. Cotton was 

 found indigenous in America. There are two 

 machines for cleansing cotton from the seeds ; these 

 are, the roller-gin and the saw-gin. The essential 

 parts of the first are two small cylinders, revolving in 

 contact, or nearly so. '1 he co:ton is drawn between 

 the rollers, while the size of the seeds prevents them 

 from passing. The saw-gin, invented by Mr Whit- 

 ney, an American, is u>ed for the black-set d cotton, 

 eds of which adhere too strongly to be sepa- 

 rated by the oilier method. It is a receiver, having 

 one side covered with strong parallel wires, about 

 an eighth of an inch apart. Between these wires pass 

 a number of circular saws, revolving on a common 

 axis. The cotton is entangled in the teeth of the 

 saws, and drawn out through the grating, while the 

 seeds are prevented, by their size, from passing. The 

 cotton thus extricated is swept from the saws by a 

 revolving cylindrical brush, and the seeds fall out at 

 the bottom of the receiver. Sir Richard Arkwright 

 is highly celebrated for the machinery which he in- 

 vented for the spinning of cotton. North and South 

 America, 1 gypt, and India, produce most of the 

 cotton consumed, and the greater part is manufac- 

 tured in Britain and the United States of America. 

 The export of cotton from the United States, beU\^n 

 October, 1828, and September, 1829, to Great Bri- 

 tain, amounted to 498,001 bales ; the amount ex- 

 ported to France, was 184,821 bales; and to the 

 other parts of Europe, 66,178 ; total, 749,000. The 

 crop in 18245 was 569,25i) bales ; tliat of 1825 6 

 ;0,027 bales; that of 18267, was 057,281; 

 that of 1827 8, was 720,593 ; that of 1828 - 9, was 

 870,415. Of this last crop, 130,000 bales are esti- 

 mated to have been manufactured in theUnited States. 

 The whole amount of cotton imported into Great Bri- 

 tain, in 1824, was 149,380,122 pounds; in 1825, was 

 228,005,291; in 1826, was 177,607,401; in 1827, 

 was 272,448,999 pounds. The value of cotton ma- 

 nufactured goods exported in 1824, according to the 

 official rates, was 27,171,555 ; in 1825,26,597,574; 

 in 1826, 21,445,742 : of cotton twist and yam, in 



182 4, according to the official rate, .2,984,344; in 



1825, 2,897,706 ; in 1826, 3,748,526. 



Colto/i Manufacture. The increase of the cot- 

 ton manufacture, during the last half century, is 

 one of the most interesting events in the history of 

 commerce. The earliest seat of the manufacture, 

 known to us, was Hindostan, where it continues to 

 l>e carried on, by hand labour, in all its original sim- 

 plicity. Such, however, lias been the power of im- 

 proved machinery, in its recent application to it, that 

 Europe and America are now pouring back upon 

 A ;ia her origin::! manufacture, and underselling her 

 in her own markets. The first impulse in tliese im- 



provements was derived from the inventions of I far 

 j;rea\e.s and Arkwriht, between 17US .ind 1780. 

 I he improved machinery of which we speak con.Msts 

 of the cylindrical carding cinj'iic. by which the lili.es 

 of cotton are disentangled and separated from each 

 other, anil from all foreign substances, and deli\ crcd 

 in a uniform, continuous roll ; the drawing and lov- 

 ing frames, by which these rolls are repeatedly dou- 

 bled and extended, until the libres are drawn out. into 

 a regular and perfectly hurizuntal portion; and the 

 spinning frame, the most important quality of which 

 is tile causing the roving or preparatory j;:rn to pass 

 through two or more sets of rollers, revoking with 

 different velocities, by which the thread, at llie mo- 

 ment of being twisted, is drawn out to any ii. 

 degree of tenuity ; the millers performing the deli- 

 care o:lice of the thumb and linger. In addition to 

 these, the power-loom was brought into general u.-e 

 about the year 1816, by which the laborious p. 

 of weaving is converted into the mere superintend- 

 ence of two, and even three, of tiiese machines ; each 

 one producing from thirty to forty yanls of' cloth pel 

 day. In the printing of calicoes, equally important 

 improvements have bet n made. Instead of the tedi- 

 ous process of impressing patterns from wooden 

 blocks, the most delicate patterns ;.rc transferred 

 from copper cylinders with astonishing rapidity ; two, 

 and even three, colours are, in this way, imprinted at 

 one operation. In the richer and more expensive 

 patterns, however, block-printing continues to be us- 

 ed, in addition to the impressions from the cylinders. 

 The science of chemistry has contributed its share of 

 improvement in the new process of bleaching by 

 chlorine, and in innumerable new combinations of 

 colours. In its present state, the entire manufacture, 

 in its various departments, presents a greater combi- 

 nation of human skill than can be found in any other 

 art or manufacture. In 1781, the quantity of cotton 

 wool imported into Great Britain, was 5,000,000 

 pounds; in 1829, it cannot lie estimated at less than 

 210,000,000; and, allowing 20,000,000 for export. 

 190,000,000 pounds will remain as the consumption 

 of the kingdom. Of this, upwards of 40,000,000 

 pounds are exported in yarns, valued at 3,500,000 

 sterling. The value of all other manufactures of 

 cotton, exported in 1828, was 13,545,638. Some 

 estimates of the annual value of the cotton manu- 

 factured in Great Britain have been as high as 

 36,000,000 sterling; but this would seem to be an 

 exaggeration. In the early periods of this manu- 

 facture, the profits must have been enormous. It has 

 built up the cities of Liverpool and Manchester in 

 England, of Glasgow and Paisley in Scotland, ami 

 has been estimated to give employment to a million 

 of persons. After a long period of success, inter. 

 rupted only by occasional and temporary fluctuations, 

 the production, both of the raw material and of die 

 manufactured article, seems to have outrun the con- 

 sumption of the world in that eventful year of over- 

 trade, 1825. A long stagnation succeeded in 1826; 

 an unprecedented reduction in the prices of cotton 

 manufactures, and in the value of property engaged 

 in it, spread a wide and general distress, throughout 

 the districts devoted to this manufacture, which con- 

 tinued, with greater or less intensity, through the 

 years 1828 and 1829. Although there is "no di- 

 minution in the quantity of cotton consumed in 

 Great Britain, there is abundant evidence, that 

 neither the capital nor labour employed in it is 

 now receiving a fair remuneration. The fall in 

 the prices of cotton manufactures, from 1814 to 

 1826, would seem, by a comparison of the real or 

 declared value of the exports with the official value, 

 rdted by a uniform list, to have been .">o per cei;U 



