Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1877-03-28

negroes Tor their cotton, often uVIulug Tue
money according to the labor performed In
raising the crop. Some lease the land OF
the former owners, but the old state of
things is "dun car' gone.' This trade and
traffic, it may be fairly expected, will In a
few years largely increase the wealth and
intelligence of the race in these localities.
THE SEA ISLAND COTTON
brings treble the price of inland. An acre
will produce in the neighborhood OF three
hundred and fifty pounds of seed cotton,
which when ginned weighs about seventy
five pounds, or one to five. The negroes
without doubt will eventually grow all the
cotton, as not one in five of the Northern
men have thus far succeeded in their at
tempts. Let the reader remember that we
have not looked at single piece OF machln-
cry yet, and then calculate the number OF
people and the amount of wealth, these
works employ and produce, before we reach
the factory. The sail, the mine commerce
and manufactures, all find employment to
supply The Clark Thread Company's works,
and when they stop the cotton may bloom
and fall unplucked, the coal miner may
starve on the bed of black diamonds, the
sails on the rivers be spread to the breeze Il o
more, and the lathes in hundred shops be
lett to rust in ST lence. The manufacture OF
Clark's 80. N. T." Spool Cottos embraces
the islands of the sea and penetrates the
bowels of the earth, utilizing the treasures of
wealth On every hand, enriching and bless
ing mankind at every step, from the womb
of ages to the spindles of Newark. We Will
now examine into the Immediate sources of
the power which drives the endless ma
chinery of this vast hive of industry, with
its sixty miles of betting and about seventy
miles of steam pipe for heating purposes.
itself large enough for an ordinary factory.
Here is mighty production of human brain
and Drawn. In the presence of this mon
ster, with its majestic tread, one feels his
own insigni6cance and frailty. This vast
piece of machinery, moving silently, save
the sharp click of the improved steam cut
OTIS, is equal in power to the combined
draft of six hundred horses, and is two
engines in one, usually termed double en-
CINE. The wheel, travelling at the rate of
forty eight revolutions per minute and car
rying three huge belts on its surface, each
two feet wide, is seventy-eight feet in cir
twenty-five feet in diameter and
weighs thirty tons or sixty thousand pounds
The shaft is fourteen inches in thickness
The double cylinders are twenty-six inches
in diameter, with condensers and stroke
of five feet. They were built by Corliss, in
1874. One of the three belts on the hv-
wheel is one hundred and fifty feet in
length. But even this double monster could
not run the works. 1t has a big twin
brother, and together they travel every day
for ten hours on their endless journey, and
never get tired, They are wonders of power
and elegant workmanship, worthy of visit
from any one who wants to see the
BIGGEST PAIR OF TWINS
in New Jersey. They are supplied with
boilers and four large upright boilers,
Corliss plan. They consume twenty-five
tons of coal per day, which will give some
idea of the amount of steam necessary to
drive the immense establishment. Besides
these there are three ordinary sized engines,
made by Watts, Campbell & Co., of New
ark, In different parts of the works, making
seven in all, grand total of nearly fourteen
hundred horse power. The young noun
tain of coal, which looks enough to last
the whole city year, is rebuilt by two
hundred and fifty ton boat loads, at brief
intervals.
MANUFACTURING THE THREAD.
The cotton is brought in bales to the mix
ing rooms, then it is examined and placed
in bins, according to the different grades,
ready for the scutching machines, which
open and beat the material, cleaning it from
the dirt and sand it contains in the bale.
After going through the scutching machine,
it comes out in the shape of a roll, like wall
paper, com paratively soft, white and clean
1t is, however, really in very rough state,
with the fneness and perfection
that is to be reached. Several OF these
scutching machines are running continual
~, and their sound is like the roar of a
lightning express train, as it whirls past the
platform where you stand The first
soutcher is fed with the bale cotton from
hopper which lets it through into knives
set in large rollers which revolve with ire
force, and Zig thing speed picking
the cotton into small pieces, and passing it
by suction OF air, on to the other rollers be-
tween which it gees and comes out in the
shape of web or clap" in large rolls. Four
of these rolls are then placed upon
machine like the first and run together
the same process of
PICKING AND BEATING AND CLEANING,
when it comes out again in the same shape
as before, rolled to exactly the thickness
which it is desired to make the silver"
from which the thread warn is to be spun.
What "sliver " is will be learned further
on. The machine is so delicately set that
it regulates the thickness of the web or lap
to within half an ounce, in web of five
feet, weighing only twelve to eighteen
ounces. After being put through three
scutchipg machines in this way and coming
out with eight thicknesses of web or lap
similar to that produced by the first pro-
cess, it is ready for the carding machines.
This department is filed with Carding Ma
chimes, Drawing Frames, Lsppers, and
Combing Machines perfect labyrinth of
betting, pulleys and machinery, the noise
of which is like the roar of many waters
mingled with the clatter of thousand
wheels. One of the large rolls of web or
lap that came from the last scutching ma
chine is placed on carding machine,
which takes and runs it
BETWEEN THE TEETH
of large and small cylinder for the pur-
pose of drawing out the entangled fbers
and laying them parallel or in the same line
Of direction and also to remove the small
pellicles or notes which may have escaped
the action of the scutching machine. At
ter being treated in this way, a comber Or
doffer takes the web from the small cylin-
der, which is now delicate gauze and it is
gathered up and passed through small
hole, say half an inch in size, after which it
is coiled in a revolving can. The whole
process is one of wonderful delicacy, the
material being SO finely worked that
breath of air would break it. This card
contains ninety thousand square teeth to a
foot, or a total Of four million one hundred