COTTON 



COTTON 



253 



cloth has been practiced in many parts of the 

 world from a remote period. Until slightly over a 

 century ago, only very rude implements were 

 used, the work being done almost entirely by 

 hand machines. However, the industry has been 

 completely revolutionized, and the enterprise of 

 modern commerce has carried the cheap products 

 of modern machinery to remote sections of the 

 earth, rendering the 'hand-spun and clumsily 

 woven cloth of earlier periods practically extinct. 



There are various steps in the process of spin- 

 ning. The loose cotton from the bale is iirst run 

 through an opener or picker, where it is subjected 

 to the action of a beater, which cleans it from 

 impurities such as broken seed, fragments of 

 leaves, burs and stalks, dirt, and the like, sep- 

 arates the individual fibers, and delivers the cot- 

 ton at the end of the machine in a uniform layer, 

 called a lap. The lapping machine is fed with 

 three laps at once and the three layers are drawn 

 out to the thickness of one, the object being to 

 neutralize the irregularities of each layer by 

 averaging them with those of two others. From 

 here it goes to the carding, combing and drawing 

 machines, which extract the very short fibers, 

 straighten out the others, and secure a uniform 

 distribution of them in parallel series. It is next 

 drawn through the "slubbing-frame," the "inter- 

 mediate frame" and the "roving frame,'' which 

 draw the "sliver"' to a more uniform size and give 

 it a slight twist. It then passes to the last pro- 

 cess, the spinning, where it is still more twisted. 



By far the largest part of the yarn is 

 woven into plain cloth, but a considerable quan- 

 tity is used as warps in woolen and worsted goods 

 or for knitting into underwear, and a large part 



water, washing it with pure water, then treating 

 it with dilute sulfuric acid and again washing it 

 with water. The treatment causes both a chemical 

 and a physical change in the constitution of the 

 fiber. The fiber before treatment is flattened and 

 somewhat twisted, but by mercerization it becomes 

 rounded into cylindrical shape, the walls of the 

 tube become thicker and the cavity is correspond- 

 ingly reduced, the surface becomes smoother, the 

 length of the fiber is reduced, it assumes a spiral 

 shape and acquires greater strength. The industry 

 has become very important. According to the 

 Twelfth Census, over 7,973,000 yards of cloth and 

 1,600,000 pounds of yarn were mercerized in 1900, 

 causing an additional value of $697,490. Egyptian 

 and sea-island cottons are best adapted to mercer- 

 ization, as they have long, silky fibers which are 

 more uniformly acted on. 



Great Britain is the chief seat of cotton manu- 

 facture. The United States ranks second. For a 

 long time the industry in this country was mainly 

 confined to the New England states, but in recent 

 years it has rapidly risen into prominence in the 

 southern states. Since the year 1890, this section 

 has probably enjoyed a greater activity in the 

 development of the industry than any other section 

 in the world. The achievements in those states 

 have been so marvelous as to cause serious alarm 

 in New England and Great Britain. However, the 

 southern mills are engaged mainly in producing 

 yarn and cheap grades of goods ; therefore their 

 products are not nearly so valuable as those of 

 New England and Great Britain. The following 

 tables will give an idea of the status of the 

 industry, as shown by Shepperson's "Cotton Facts" 

 and the United States census report: 



Summary op the Industry in the United States as Shown by the Census Eepobts op 1900. 



of the product of sea-island cotton is converted 

 into sewing thread. 



Within recent years the process known as mer- 

 cerization has become an important adjunct to 

 cotton manufacturing. It consists of subjecting 

 the cotton to the action of caustic soda dissolved in 



By-'products. 



Until comparatively recent years, cotton was 

 grown entirely for its fiber, but now the by- 

 products represent a large percentage of the total 

 value of the crop. The roots supply a chemical 

 substance similar in its action to ergot ; the bark 



