The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1879-12-11
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION IN COT
TON INDUSTRY.
Spinning and Ginning Cotton by the Same Pro-
ATLANTA letter in Philadelphia Tlmesl

Spinning and Ginning Cotton by the Same Pro-
cess.
ATLANTA letter in Philadelphia Timesl
One of the results Of the defeats Of DC.
tober and November has been to make
the people turn their faces away from
politics and give their attention to the
problems of practical development. The
unexpected and artificial rise in the
price of cotton has added fully two cents
pound to the ordinary price Of this
staple. This surplus of $40 per bale,
which strikes the farmers as happily as
did the fairy godmother's gift to Cinder-
ella, and which comes quite as gratui-
tously, has given everything boom.
The cotton is being rushed to market as
rapidly as possible. Just upon this boom
comes the discussion of little machine
that is already famous over the contl'
nent and that promises the grandest re-
sults-the Clement attachment. This
machine, the invention of Memphis
mechanic, who died of the yellow fever,
provides for the spinning of yarns from
seed cotton. At present the cotton is
picked from the ball, taken to gin
which simply separates the lint from
the seed. The lint is then baled and
sent North for manufacturing. With the
Clement mill the lint is not only sepa.
rated from the seed, but it is spun into
yarn. The difference in value is enor'
nous. The lint cotton is worth only
about eight cents pound on the pIanta-
tions; the yarn is worth seventeen cents
pound, 1t will be seen therefore that
every pound Of cotton spun is doubled in
value. A bail of cotton gained by the
old process is worth $50; the same cot
ton run through the new process is
worth $lOO. Of this added value fully
$l5 is clear profit, A crop of 100000
bales spun into yarn would therefore
leave $5OO,OO0OOO in the South, while it
leaves now only $3.50, 100000 there would
be $50, 100000 profit. The rest would be
kept on the farms in the way of wages,
etc, 1t looks unreasonable to apply
these figures to the whole crop, yet it
would require no more capital to spin
the crop into yarns by the new process
than it does to gin it by the old. One
Clement mill will do the work of three
gins and costs about one.third as much.
1t is believed that they will rapidly take
the place of gins on the plantations and
that thorough revolution will be effect
ed. There are six of these little mills in
operation in Georgia and the Carolinas.
Each of them is visited daily by crowds
of sight seers and farmers and capital
lists. Letters are received from all parts
of the country, and samples have been
sent for by Liverpool capitalists. The
yarns made by this process are superior
to any others and took the premiums at
all the fairs. The little mills could not,
all combined, supply fraction of the
demand that comes from Philadelphia
alone for the yarns.
One point that commends the Clement
mills to the South is that they will make
an essentially Southern industry. The
seed cotton cannot be carried away
from the plantations. 1t must be spun
there just as completely as it is now GIN
ned there. The mills are very simple. |
1t is simply the connection ofa gin with |
a spindle by means of Carding cylinders.
In the old system the fibre is chopped |
and torn from the seed by lightning like
saws and then thrown all tangled and
torn into the lint pile, then packed into
bales, taken to the factories, picked out
and hogged again and then carded into
rolls and spun. In the new process the
gin moves slower, pulls the fibre from
the seed instead Of tearing or cutting it,
transfers it carefully to carding cyiin
der, instead of throwing it into the lint
pile and spins it at once, instead of pack.
ing it, Compressing it and picking it out
again. In the process of fConverJing seed
cotton to thread no less than four ma.
chimes used in the old process are elm
mated in the new process, and profit
of nearly two cents pound is gained.
This is al enormous margin of profit. 1t
is proved also that by the superior gins
used in the Clement mills eight per cent
more of lint is taken from the seed than
by the old gins, This eight per cent.
has heretofore been wasted. From the
lint to the thread there is another five
per cent. of wastage saved.
The future over these mills is wonder.
full. They drive out all thoughts of poll
tics. 1t is estimated that over one hun
lred will be put to work in Georgia
within the next year, A prominent cot
ton factory man predicted to me that the
time would come when the old factories
would scatter their spindles among these
plantation mills and supply their place
with looms to weave the yarns sent in
from the farms. The profits of these
mills are large percentage. The six
mills in operation average from 80 to so
per cent A mill that costs So 500 has
made $l,S69 clear in one year, and it
will do better next year. A double mill
that cost $4,000 is making from So to $40
\ day, and is safe for So 600 year. They
are simple, snug little structures, looking
ike the ordinary country grist mills. "A
'ix'horse power will run one of Them
Several Northern capitalists have visited
,he mills and several companies are be.
ng formed to put them up. The South
,rn papers are full of enthusiastic arti-
lies concerning them.
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