‘COTTON MANUFACTURE. 77 
_ The next operation to which the cotton is subjected is performed by what 
are called batting (beating), scutching, and blowing machines, by means of 
which the fibres of the cotton, which have been loosened by the willows, 
are more perfectly opened, and by the use of Sieves and ventilation entirely 
freed from dust. The beating is accomplished by flat rods, which strike 
the cotton whilst it is slowly carried through the machine upon endless 
cloths. 
In each machine there are generally two beating arrangements, from the 
second of which it is taken to a new machine, called a dap machine, which, 
after again blowing and scutching the cotton, coils it upon a wooden roller, 
in the form of a lap or sheet. 
The first blowing machine serves to prepare the cotton for the second, 
and is sometimes called a spreading machine; it is shown in pi. 17, fig. 6. 
The frame is of cast-iron and is covered in with boards, only the necessary 
openings being left for the introduction and extraction of the cotton and the 
separation of the dust. The feeding takes place through an endless apron, a, 
which runs over two wooden rollers, 6 and c, by the revolution of which it 
is moved. A table, d, between the rollers 6 and ¢, on the surface of which 
the feeding apron travels, serves as a support for the latter, and keeps it 
always flat. The cotton is spread by hand upon this apron, which feeds it 
with the utmost regularity to the fluted rollers, e¢, by which it is drawn in 
and subjected to the operation of the beater or scutcher, 7, which consists 
of an axle and two arms, which carry thin iron beaters with rounded edges. 
Beneath the beater is a curved grating of iron wire, x, which permits the 
dirt and seeds to fall through, whilst the filaments of cotton are blown upon 
a second apron, @’, which conducts the cotton to the second seutcher, 7’, 
arranged precisely like the first. In order that the cotton may be delivered 
regularly to the feeding rollers e’, it is pressed down upon the apron 
by a wire-gauze squirrel-cage, A, which bears with its whole weight upon 
the feeding apron, a’, and transfers to it, in the form of a sheet, the cotton 
which is blown against its circumference. The dust and short fibres of 
cotton are blown through the meshes of the sieve, from which they are 
again drawn off by a sucking fan-ventilator above. 
The second beater drives the cotton through a long wooden canal, «xz, 
a portion of the floor of which consists of a grating of inclined slats. The 
progress of the cotton through this canal is assisted by a ventilator, m, 
placed beneath the beater. 
The second blowing-machine, called a lap-machine, because it converts 
the cotton into a lap or sheet, resembles in its elements the before described 
machine, and is represented in pl. 17, jig. 7. The cotton, which, by the 
pressure of the wire-gauze drum /, is already measurably compressed, passes 
from the endless apron op, between the two smooth rollers 7,s, which are 
pressed together by heavy weights, and serve to give the sheet of cotton an 
additional degree of firmness. As it leaves these rollers the lap is rolled 
upon a wooden roller, v, whose gudgeons run in vertical grooves, which 
permit it to rise as the size of the roll of cotton increzses. This roller rests 
upon the revolving rollers ¢,w, covered with leather, by friction upon which 
ICONOGRAPHIC ENCYCLOPZDIA.—VOL, Iv. 42 657 
