COTTON. 45 



a stand a few feet from the ground. The cylinders, 

 very nearly touching;, were put in motion by a wheel 

 acted upon by the foot. The cotton, being brought 

 to one side of the crevice intervening between them 

 during their revolution, was turned over to the oppo- 

 site ; whilst the seeds, being too large to enter, fell at 

 the feet of the workmen." Mr. Clarke Abel then de- 

 scribes the instrument used by the Chinese for free- 

 ing the cotton from knots and dirt: " This is equally 

 simple, and is the same as that used, I believe, in 

 most countries for the same or a similar purpose. It 

 is a very elastic bow with a tight string. In using 

 it the carder places it in a heap of the material, and 

 having pulled down the string with some force, he 

 suddenly allows the bow to recoil ; the vibration of 

 the string scatters the cotton about, and separates it 

 into fibres freed from all knots and impurities*." A 

 drawing of an instrument scarcely at all differing 

 from this Chinese cotton-bow, is given by Sonnerat, 

 in his ' Voyage aux Indes Orientales,' torn. i. p. 108 f. 

 Thunberg says, that in Batavia, he saw " the cot- 

 ton cleansed from the seed, by being laid out on 

 extended cloths, and beaten with sticks, till all the 

 seed was perfectly separated from it}." The use of 

 the machine called a gin very much facilitates the pro- 

 cess. This machine in general consists of two or 

 three fluted rollers set in motion by the foot in the 

 manner of a turning lathe, and by its means one 

 person may separate and cleanse sixty-five pounds 

 per day, and thus, by the use of a simple piece of 

 machinery, increase his effective power sixty-five times. 

 A still greater increase may be obtained by the em- 

 ployment of more complex engines. In the United 



* Travels in China, p. 163. 



t Upland Georgia cotton is frequently known as u Bowed," 

 which name it acquired from the implement formerly used in. 

 cleaning it. 



J Travels, vol. ii. 



