COTTON MANUFACTURE. 79 
is unfit for manufacturing purposes. The close adherence of the fibres to 
the seed renders this a tedious operation, which is now entirely performed 
by machines called gins. That most commonly used in the United States 
is the saw gin, of which pl. 17, fig. 1, is a section, fig. 2 a plan showing 
the saws and brush cylinder. The prominent parts of the machine are two 
cylinders of different diameters, r and u, which lie in a strong wooden 
frame, and are set in motion by crank, bands and pulleys, or other means. 
Upon a horizontal axle ff, circular steel plates or saws are secured, the 
circumference of which is filled with sharp-pointed inclined teeth. These 
plates, which are 10 to 12 inches in diameter, and half a line thick, are 
separated a distance of 9 lines from each other by small washers. In front 
of this saw-cylinder, and secured to the main frame of the machine, is a 
grating of bent iron bars, placed so near each other that the saws can just pass 
between them without rubbing. This grating forms a portion of the for- 
ward side of the hopper 1, which receives the cotton to be operated upon. 
Connected with the back wall of the hopper is a strip hung upon hinges, 
and adjusted by a set of screws, by which means the opening through which 
the seeds pass when cleaned is regulated. Behind the saws, and parallel 
with their axis of rotation, is the drum u, carrying six horse-hair brushes, ce. 
The saws and brushes move in contrary directions, the former making about 
100 and the latter 150 revolutions per minute. ‘The teeth of the saws, 
which project more or less between the rods of the grating into the hopper, 
seize the fibres of cotton and draw them through, whilst the seeds, being too 
large to follow, fall through the opening at the bottom of the hopper into 
the box n below; the cotton is then swept off the teeth of the saws by the 
revolving brushes. The brush-cylinder also acts as a ventilator, which 
partially cleans the wool. The ginned cotton falls upon the inclined table 
o, and thence into the box p; such a machine requires two-horse power to 
move it, and turns out 5000 lbs. of cotton per day. 
1. Picxine, Scurcuinc, anp Lapping Macutnes. 
The first operation in cotton-spinning is to pick open the closely packed 
mass, and separate the sand and other foreign substances which it may con- 
tain. The finest cotton, as the Sea Island, is first opened by hand, spread 
upon a table of coarse netting called a fake, and beaten with rods by women 
and children. The shaking of the net-work loosens the cotton and frees it 
from sand, whilst the larger extraneous substances are picked out by hand. 
This labor was tedious and expensive, and machines have been invented to 
perform it. One of the best and most common for this purpose is the wolf 
or willow, originally a cylindrical willow basket, but as now constructed, a 
most powerful and effectivemachine. 1. 17, jig. 3, represents an exterior 
view of a conical willow, showing the side which receives and delivers the 
cotton; jig. 4 is an end-view, and jig. 5 a plan, a portion of the covering 
and frame being removed to show the interior mechanism. /%g. 5a shows 
the perforated plates on the grating which forms a portion of the bottom 
655 
