St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1880-01-10
Clements's Great Invention.
THE MACHINE THAT WILL REVOLUTION
IZE THE SOUTHERN COTTON BUSINESS.
louisville Evening Post and News. |


IZE THE SOUTHERN COTTON BUSINESS.
louisville Evening Post and News.
CORINTH, Miss, Dec IS, 1S79.-Some
five years since Bishop Paine Of Abcr-
deen, Miss, called at my Office in this
place, and casually remarked that he
had recently seen in Cincinnati some
yarns Of superior strength and sheen
which had been made directly from
seed cotton, by some Middle Tennes-
sean, whose name he could not recol-
lect. [ became Immediately interested,
for [ had attempted such thing during
the war, and failed for lack Of sllillful
machinists, who were nearly all in the
army or in Government machine shops.
On the Bishops return home he sent
me the address OF Lewis Tresband
| Clements of Smyrna, Tenn. as the
man who had invented Il new process
of converting seed cotton directly into
yarn.
| | Immediately wrote to him and re-
ceiyed prompt answer from DR..
James A. Ridley, stating that Clements
had accidentally lost his life some two
years previous; that his machine was
at Pulaski, cnn., where 1T was made,
! ana tiifffdd had remained since Clements's de-
cease.
found the machine as he had left it..
| | became a third owner and general
agent for the other seventeen owners
of the patent which Clements had
taken out. | removed it to this place,
and on receipt of yarns from various
factories, both North and South, where
| had sent slivers made by the attach
ment to be spun into yarns (all of said
| Northern factories believed from the
| strength and sheen OF the silver rove
and thread that it was some new kind
of silk cotton of long, fine staple late
| ly introduced in the South, when III
reality it was made of dirty, short
staple cotton grown in the mountains
around PulaskD. The yarns and ma
chine created great interest.
| became alarmed lest the machine
should be improved Oh and patented by
some one to the detriment OF its OWN
ers, and had the card and attachment
removed to a small factory and ma
chine shop in the mountains of North
Alabama, where | kept it twelve
months, experimenting and securing
other patents, so as to cover the whole
thing, at the expiration OF which time
the tirst mill was started at this place,
which was soon followed by mills III
Tennessee, South and North Carolina.
The Clements patent was for no new
invention, but for the combination OF
the principles of two machines that
have been in use for three fOurths of a
century-namely, the "gin and card"
for converting seed cotton, by one
operation, into sliyers.
This machine consists Of q tlirtysx-
inch top-hat, stripping card; f; the
attachment (Which is a diminutive gin
1896 inches) is substituted for the
licker-in and feed rollers of the card;
its saws are seven inches in diameter:
with fourteen teeth to the inch, and re-
wolves from 100 to 200 times per minute.
The brush connected with the saws is
a cylinder covered with bristles; its
periphery revolves little faster than
the saws, and has also traverse or
horizontal motion. The periphery OF
the card travels II little faster than the
brush feed table is placed above the
card and connected with the attach
ment by chute, and gives regular
supply of seed cotton to the attach
ment. A stop-motion is used to save
waste in case of accident. These, with
small drawing roller between the
dotfer and calender rollers, to reduce
the silver to the ordinary working size,
and cam motion to receive said silver,
are all the changes and additions made
to the card, and there are none made
elsewhere.
The seed cotton is spread upon the
endless apron Of the feed table, and
passes THENCE through the chute into
the attachment, where the lint is re-
moved from the seed, aud while on the
fine saw teeth (after passing the RIBS
passes through set OF combing plates,
which removes all e1traneous matter,
and delivers the tiaments to the brush,
which delivers them to the card, and
thence through the doffer, small draw
ing and calender rollers, are delivered
as perfect silver into revolving can.
BY this process only four machines
are necessary to convert any given
amount of seed cotton into perfect
yarns-viz: card, as changed drawing
frame, speeder, and spinning frame.
It is true a cleanser OF seed cotton is
used as a preparatory machine. Us
size is 22x2Sx44 inches; cost, S75; capa-
city, 5000 pounds OF seed cotton per
day; power necessary to drive, one
half Of one horse.
The new process dispenses with full
ly one-half the building. machinery,
motive power, and operatives hitherto
necessary to convert any given amount
of seed cotton into yarns; causes the
card, with the same amount OF motive
power, to do five times as much work
saves one-half the usual waste, and
produces stronger silver rove and thread
than can be made of baled cotton,
which, on account Of their extra
strength, seldom break or let down,
thereby enabling operatives to attend
more machinery and each machine to
do more work. The thread is equal in
every respect to that made of baled
cotton, fifty per cent. stronger, and
more sheeny.
The attachment supersedes the gin,
press and compress, because they are
attended and only used to render cot
ton transportable the willower, Topper,
double Topper. breaker, and four-fifths
nf tla eartis heaause they are only