Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1858-07-21
VOL. XXIII...NO IS.
BUILDING HOUSES WITH corrdN.

The uses to which cotton may be applied are
numerous, and the demand for it is growing.
We have now to, chronicle another discovery,
which, if it turns out to be what is claimed for
it, will exercise no small influence upon the fn.
ture value Of the snowy staple of the South. A
correspondent of the Charleston Courier notices,
with much commentator, new invention, by
which immature or inferior cotton may he used
for building purposes. The invention, we are
told, was patented one year ago, aud has had
successful trial" BY this process "the soiled
and water stained cotton ofthe fields, the wreck
of fires, the scraps and bits scattered everywhere.
even the sweepings of cotton factories which, in
many cases, are too bad to be purchased even
by paper mills and are cast out rs rubbish, are
destined to form the material of our public as
we'll as private buildings the crude fibre first
losing its elasticity, vet remaining singularly te.
naciOus, becoming finally as hard and as durable
perhaps as stone ITSELF
From the description, says the Columbus (Ga.)
Enquirer, we infer that the process is similar to
that by which chairs and many orther articles of
furniture are made of papier-machc. The paper
pellets which children sometimes chew and throw
about become very hard and strong when dry,
capable of sustaining considerable pressure and
of much durability and frmness. Their plastic.
ity when wet is also great and the furniture
made of this material is at once very light and
strong. The preparation of cotton waste for
building purposes, We suppose, is by similar
process of reducing the fibre to o paste, with an
outside coating of some impervious substance to
prevent the absorption Of rain. The Couriers
correspondent says that roof thus formed IS
both fire and waterproof He further SAYS:
On the whole, from what we ourselves once
witnessed, plastic cotton building should occu.
py, in completing it from roof to cellar, about
one-half the time required for laying an equal
measure of brick wall. When it is considered,
too, that such houses will be as freproof as brick,
and as strong, if not much stronger, than houses
of modern economy in material, and actually
stand the contractor in for but one.third the
average cost of bricks when laid, the belief seems
fully justified that few years will see our
streets and those Of other cities adorned with
grauite.like structures, or here and there q fac.
slmile of brown or freestone, not erected by mil.
lionaires, but by men whose fortunes might not
have sufficed otherwise for even unadorned brick
and mortar.
This invention, if successful, is certainly an
important one for the cotton planter. When our
cotton fields, instead of our forests and brick
yards, furnish the cheapest and best building
material, aud Mr.. Henry's invention enables the
planter to send his cotton to market in the shape
of spun yarn, the empire of King Cotton will be
great, without rival, and the demand for new
cotton territory and more laborers will keep pace
with the new uses of the staple and the new de-.
mands on the industry of the plantation-M
O. Crescent