THE COTTON PLANT. 



289 



and wooilen crauks to tuni in the manner of tlie 

 steel corn-mill." It was turned by one person 

 and fed by another. Mr. Bisset of Georgia, in 

 1768, resorted to the " simple plan of a bench 

 upon which rose a frame supportiug two short 

 rollers, revolving in opposite directions, and 

 each turned by a boy or girl, and giving as the 

 result of the day's work, five pounds of clean 

 Cotton." These, and many others like them 

 used subsequently in several parts of this State, 

 were in part of the fashion of the Cotton hand- 

 mill of India, which consists of two rollers of 

 teak wood, fluted longitudinally with five or six 

 grooves, and revolving nearly in contact. The 

 ujiper roller is turned by a handle, and the 

 lower is carried along with it by a perpetual 

 screw at the axis. The present foot or treadle- 

 gin,* first used in Georgia, was imported from 

 the West Indies, and is probably unsusceptible 

 of any advantageous alteration. To prevent the 

 Cotton from being cairied round about with the 

 rollers, Mr. Harvie of Berbice, in 1820, obtained 

 a patent for an improvement, ^vhich consisted 

 in the application of a thin, long brash to the 

 posterior surface of the rollers. From the lia- 

 bility of these to get hot in their rotation, a 

 patent in the United States w-as secured by an- 

 other per.son, for making them hollow for the 

 free passage of cool air, or even water. 



A vei-y decided improvement on the treadle- 

 gin, at least for many years it was .so considered, 

 especially in Georgia, was made aboiit the year 

 1790, by "Joseph Eaves, a native of Providence, 

 Rhode-Island, but who then resided in the Ba- 

 hamas. As originally consti'ucted, Eaves's ma- 

 chiua was a double gin, and had two pairs of 

 rollers placed obliquely one above the other. By 

 additional mechanism, consisting of iron teeth 

 and pullies, and by a little assi.stauce, it was 

 made to feed itself. The mill was worked by 

 horses and oxen, or by water. To this suc- 

 ceeded the gin of Mr. Pottle of St. Mary's, Geor- 

 gia. He substituted two single rollers for the 

 double ones, and placed them back to back, 

 forming an angle v^'ith each other ; both were 

 driven with the same band-wheels, which were 

 placed above and between them. Pottle's gins 

 continued long in high repute in Georgia, but 

 were used only by few planters in this State. 

 Birney's. Simpson's and Nicholson's gin.s, and 

 many others, bearing the cognomens of their 

 inventors, followed in quick succession. In 

 Whittemore's machine, it was thought that all 



* In 1796, William Brisbane* received several foot- 

 gins from his father-in-law in the Bahamas, which 

 were erected under the direction of, and actually 

 put into operation by, hi.s wife. She had temporn- 

 rily resided in Providence, and. being of an active 

 and inquifirive mind, watched with interest the dif- 

 f(M-ont processes of preparing Cotton for market. By 

 this means, she was enabled to do what no gentle- 

 man, certainly in that section of the State, could ac- 

 complish. What disposidnn it was proper to make 

 of tlie seed of the Cotton, which the gins very soon 

 so freely furnished, was rather a perplexing ques- 

 tion, lield to be of no value, it was first carelessly 

 thro\vn on the ground ; the hogs ate of it, however, 

 and they died. It was then put into pens, but the 

 pigs found their way between the interstices of the 

 rails, and quickly shared the fate of their elders. As 

 a dernier resort, and with a view permanently to be 

 rid of the " nuisance." it v.-as deposited in a small 

 creek contiguous to the mansion house. There at 

 low w.-iter it soon generated a miasmatic odor, which, 

 when the wind was favorable, was so otfcnsive as to 

 create a strong feeling of prejudice against the farther 

 culture of the crop. 



* The aenUeman named in page ISO. 

 (599)..;. 19 



tlie objections to the previous ones liad been ef- 

 fectually removed. To run in the easiest pos- 

 sible manner, and to preserve the rollers from 

 being heated, it was provided with friction- 

 wheels and friction-rollers. Although, there- 

 fore, from these causes the Cotton received no 

 damage, yet it was soon discovered that it cut 

 the staple, and that this irremediable defect was 

 in proportion to the velocity of the gin. It was 

 consequently abandoned. Farris's and Logan's 

 machines, which are slight modifications in the 

 mechanism of Eaves's invention, were by many 

 successfully employed for years, and they are 

 still partially used with steam as the propelling 

 power. Where this wonderful agent is at com- 

 mand, the common barrel-gin, originally worked 

 by hor.ses or oxen, is probably the most unex- 

 ceptionable. " It is indeed nothing more than 

 the foot-gin, to which greater power is applied 

 by complicated mechanism. 'This consists of a 

 large driving cog-wheel, \\orkiivg a small trun- 

 dle-wheel. This smaller wheel gives motion to 

 a large cylinder or baiTel, round which from 8 

 to 24 sets of bands are passed, communicating 

 with the pullies of as many Cotton-gins, which 

 are fLxed in rows on each side of it." As the 

 young, the old and infirm, male or female, can 

 engage at \vork as feeders, a very material ad- 

 vantage in favor of this gin is secured. To each 

 laborer the daily average is about fifty pomids 

 of clean Cotton. 



All of the gins subjected to examination and 

 trial in this Slate, except the fir.st of Eaves's 

 maiiutacture, are supplied only with two rollers, 

 both of wood ; or one of cast-steel and the other 

 of %vood ; or both cast-steel, one covered with 

 leather : or both of wood, one also with a leather 

 covering. Cork rollers have also been tried. 

 The desideratum is to prevent injury to the sta- 

 ple, either by cutting or heating it. To accom- 

 plish these gTeat ends, at least a half million of 

 dollars has been fi-uitlcssly expended by artists, 

 incited by the expectation of the highest re- 

 ward, and distinguished for skill and perse- 

 verance in their profession. The notice of a 

 new and improved gin* for both green-seed and 

 black-seed Cottons, recently constructed by F. 

 M'Carthy of Alabama, has been favorably re- 

 ceived by the public. That it is destined to 

 supplant Whitney's invention is probable from 

 the fact that the Cotton prepared by it com- 

 manded, at one time last winter, three cents 

 more per pound in the Mobile market than that 

 cleaned by the latter. That it may subserve 

 the purpose of the grower of Long-Cotton is in- 

 ferred from the declaration of an acknowledged 

 competent witness. A few pounds of the finest 

 description of that staple ginned by this ma- 

 chine, and unmoted afterwards, the property of 



, was sent by him in December, 1842, to 



Mr. Houldsworth, the eminent spinner of Man- 

 chester, who returned an an.swer of which the 

 following is an extract : — " We have carefully 



examined the sample of Mr. 's Cotton 



cleaned on a new ginning machine. It is re- 

 markably clean, and in an excellent state for our 

 purpose as respects openness." The gin, how- 

 over, may bo very liable to get out of order ; 

 may continue only for a short time to effect the 

 desired object, and may with difficulty be re- 

 paired : hi other words, the results of trial may 

 show it to be an expensive mechanical agent. 



For the silky Cottons produced on the Sea- 

 Islands of South Carolina, the planter is iudebt- 



* See Note D. in the Appendix. 



