COTTON SHIPPERS 169 



further opening and mixing, consisting of a doivli/ rotating wooden 

 beater, having six arms each l^in. A\ide ; this tosses the cotton up, 

 riddles it further and throws it on an open platform where a number 

 of men, by means of wooden forks further loosen and mix the cotton, 

 pushing it gradually into one of the weighing boxes that are on either 

 side of this platform. A bell indicates when 4001b. of cotton are in 

 the box : it is then deposited in the box of the press with which the 

 weighing box is in close contact. Meanwhile the other weighing box 

 is filled. There are two boxes (in the old presses three) in each Fawcett 

 press, as the bale is pressed twice. The number of bales which can 

 be sorted and pressed in a given time depends on the state of the 

 cotton delivered. All the export firms have this or a similar method 

 of mixing and pressing ; it depends, of course, a good deal on the 

 punctilious manner in which this work is performed ; the process itself 

 is no secret. 



Two of the firms had part of the cotton passing through a Creighton 

 Opener before sending it on to the slanting table, but I pointed out 

 that this machine often robs the cotton of the bloom as it is 

 frequently run too fast.* Another firm had in place of the roller 

 table an endless trellis table mechanically rotating ; a third firm Avas 

 doing without the table and spread the cotton out on the floor, as is 

 done in Alexandria. This latter process cannot get rid of the dirt as 

 well as the slanting table does. At one place we were told that the 

 Creighton opener enabled the firm to improve seconds and even 

 '' refugo" to first-class cotton, taking out as much as 15 per cent. dirt. 



The shipping marks, the names of the European firms, etc., as 

 far as I could ascertain, are as follows : — 



Boris, Freres & Cie, Natal, Ceara and Paris. — The Natal 

 house is undergoing at present some changes ; during the last two 

 years little cotton has been shipped from there. The shipping marks 

 are known as BF Serido, BF Sertao and BF Matta, generally sent 

 to Liverpool. 



The principal house is at Ceara, where a very large quantity 

 of cotton is handled for shipment to Liverpool, Havre, and all the 

 Continental markets. The best known mark from the Ceara house is 

 BF/G, classed as fully fair to good fair, average length of fibre 

 29/32mm., used largely for mixing with Egyptian cotton. 



Boris Freres & Cie are established at 65, rue de la Victoire, 

 Paris ; in Liverpool they sell through Messrs. W. R. Roberts & Co., 

 4, Irwell Chambers, Fazakerley Street, and in Havre through M. 

 Ernest Moch, 146, Bd. de Strassbourg. 



BoxwELL & Co., Pernambuco. 



* Brooks & Doxey (1920) Ltd., Manchester, are making the " Youlten Cotton 

 Opener," a machine which opens the cotton on a new principle; it is claimed for this 

 machine that it take.« out more dirt than any other Opener and that the " bloom " is 

 not damaged, but increased. 



