The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1879-12-04
A Promised Industrial Revolution.

One Of the results of the defeats of
October and November has been to
make the people turn their faces away
from politics and give their attention
TO the problems Of practical develop
ment. The unexpected and arti-
fetal rise in the price Of cotton has
added fully two cents pound to the
ordinary price of this staple. This sur
plus of $40 per bale, which strikes the
farmers as happily as did the fairy
godmothcr's gift to Cinderella, and
which comes quite as gratuitously, has
given everything a 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 continent
and that promises the grandest results
the Clement attachment. This ma
chine, tie invention OF q Memphis me-
chanic, who died of the yellow fever,
provides for the spinning of yarns
from seed cotton. AT present the cot
ton is picked from the boil, taken to a
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 separated from the seed, but it is
spun into yarn. The difference in val
ne is enormous. The lint cotton is
worth only abont eight cents pound
on the plantation; the yarn is worth
seventeen cents pound. 1t will be
seen therefore that every pound Of cot
ton spun is doubled in value. a bale
of cotton gined by the old process is
worth say $50; the same cotton run
through the new process is worth 500.
OF this added value fully S15 is clear
profit. a crop Of 100000 bales
spun into yarn would therefore leave
5000, 100000 in the South, while it
leaves now only $3.50, 1000, 900. Of this
surplus of $3.50, 00O,0 900 there would
be $75, 900, 900 profit. The rest would
be kept on the farms in the way of wa
ges, etc. It looks unreasonable to APP
ply these figures to the whole crop, and
vet 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 revolu-
ton will be affected. There are six of
these little mills in operation in Geor-
gia and the Carolinas. Each of them
is visited daily by crowds of sight seers
and farmers and capitalists. Letters
are received from all parts of the coun-
try, and samples of the yarn have been
sent for by Liverpool capitalist. The
yarns made by this process are superior
to anyothers and took the premium at
all the fairs. The little mills could not
all combind, supply fraction of the
demand that comes from Philadelphia
alone for the yarns.
One point that commends the Gle
mcnt mills to the South is that they
will make an essentially Southern in
dustrv. The seed cotton cannot be
carried away from the plantations. 1t
must be spun there Just as completely
rs it is now ginned there The mills
are very simple 1t is simply the con-
nection of gin with Il spindle by
means of carding cylinders. In the
old system the lbIc Is ClOilpGu anu JOIll
from the seed by lightening-like saws
and then thrown all tangled and torn
into the lint pile, then packed into bales,
taken to the factories, picked out and
froggIed 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 cut
ting it, transfers it carefully to a card
inc cylinder, instead Of throwing it in
to tic lint pile and spins it at once, in
stead of packing it, COMPRISING ii and
plcl<ing it out again. In the process Of
converting seed cotton to thread no
less than four machines used in the old
nroeess are eliminated in the new pro
cess, and a profit Of nearly two cents n
nound is gained. This is an 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 here
tofoTe been wasted. From the lint to
fine thread there is another five per cent.
Of wastage saved.
" The f9rore over these mills is won
derful. They drive out all thoughts