Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1877-10-10

years before Christ, Herodotus wrote !;
"There is a plant in India which pro-
duces wool finer ard better than that
I u kHes5ss-a.. .SS = ssAirss. sfssc-AI.-~a
aA4 - N11nayE1n11n1Gl(
Th4 was cotton, Of course in fact,
there is no question about II, for Alex
ander soon after brought il into Persia,
Arabia and Egypt. So you see, we
have positive proof that cotton was
grown and used for the same purpose
as now used, about twenty-three hun
dred years ago.
Eighteen handred years ago calico
was being manufactured from cotton,
so history tells us. Possibly it was
not called calico. The historians do
not post us on that point they merely
mention 1t as "cloth constructed Of
wool that grew on plants, and embel-
lished in rude fashion with fantastic
representation of flowers"
Most writers mention cotton as ma
tiveto India. Columbus found cotton in
Hayti, and Cortez found cotton "cloth
Of fine and firm texture" in common
use among the original Mexicans all
of which naturally leads to the conclu-
sion that cotton was as much native
of the New World as the Old.
About the year 400 the manufac-
ture Of cotton cloth began in Europe.
At first it was decidedly an uphill
business, being bitterly persecuted at
every hand. For two hundred years
the weavers were forced to conduct
their operations in secret. IL was
woven mixed wool, on hand loom, in
slow and tedious manner. The per-
secution was based upon the grounds
that cloth was 10 be made of neither
wool nor hair, It's introduction was
simply an adulteiation and hence a
fraud.
The first cotton grown in what is
now known as the United States, was
introduced into Georgia from Barba.
does, about the middle of the seven
teenth century but its cultivation did
not become general until over hun
dred years after.
In 1880, a Mr.. Wyatt, OF England,
worked the first cotton made into
cloth or thread by machinery. In
l74l, the English people were fairly
interesting themselves IN the matter,
and a report published in 174l shows
the imports Of raw cotton for that year
to have amounted to / 900, 900 pounds.
The first cotton spinning mill was
erected at Birmingham, England, in
1742. In l76l, Arkwright afterwards
knighted,) obtained the first patent
for spinning machinery. 1t spun but
a single thread, but in 1867 James Har.
grove invented and patened a new
machine that spun eight threads in
stead Of one.
In l775 the power loom was invent.
ed. In the same year it was discover
ed that chloride could be employed in
bleaching cotton In 1890 the cultiva.
tiOn of Sea Island cotton began in the
United States. In the same year was
erected at Pawtucket, Rhode Island,
the first American cotton mill. In 1892,
the first cotton gin was invented, in
Georgia, by Eli Whitney. Up to that
time the seed had been separated from
the lint by hand picking.
The first power loom working cot
ton in the United States, was started
at Waltham, Mass, in 1906. From
that day on TO the present there has
been in this country, with brief in
terruption during the late war, steady
increase in both production and man
uiacture. The production has been
confined to the South, of course, while
the manufacture has, up to late years,
been mainly confined to the North.
A change in the labor system OF the
Southern States is now bidding fair to
work change in our people, causing
them to turn their attention moro to
and machinery. This
fact, associated with the advantages
for manufacturing presented by our
section, will in few years to come,
most likely, make us emphatically the
"Cotton States" In other words, it
will carry the manufacture of cotton
almost exclusively to the region where
the cotton is produced.-The South.