The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1884-07-03
gaaerspn gatelligeuter.
Short Talk With the Boys.
By NJ. QUAD.


should. A piece of string is tossed away
in contempt thousand times per dag,
and nobody seems TO realize that lis
manufacture is one of the most curious
things that machinery is put to. Let's
have O little talk about it. 1t is Il cotton
string, you see, and VIC must begin with
cotton.
AS far South as Georgia and Alabama
cotton seed is in the ground by the last
Of February, and never later than the
first week in March. 1t is drilled in the
same as wheat, and soon after the plant
is up force of negroes called choppers"
are set to work. "Chopping cotton"
means gping along the rows with hoe
and cutting or chopping out the extra
plants. If left as they come up they
would be too crowded. Later on the
plants must be hoed like corn, and it is
=, Fall before the boil opens and shows the
clean, snow white cotton. There are from
two to four or five pickings, according to
the strength of the crop. Right here is
where the hardest part Of the work comes
in. Negroes with sacks sluug over their
shoulders take the field row by row and,
with twist of the fingers which few
white men can initiate, snatch the cotton
from the boil. They must work in a
STOPPING posture, and 60 where you will
in tho cotton States, you can tell an old
cotton picker by his walk on the streets.
Your string has been planted,
chopped" hoed aud gathered. Millions
of dollars have been invested thousands
OF people given work, and millions again
+. are TO be realized; Now, then, the cotton
F. must be ginncd, TO take the seeds and
dirt out. The cotton.gin houses Of the
South represent hundreds Of thousands Of
dollars more. Then it must he pressed,
sacked and hooped, End you have the
ordinary bale of cOtt'n Weighing, say,
500 pounds. Now If the cotton is to be
used at home, the ordinary bales are
loaded into wagons or carts, and" drawn
to the nearest town. You see them como
in by six mule teams, by four, by two,
hnd Eow and then one drives into town
on his siDgle bale drawn by an OK.
!. 1lthe cotton is to go abroad it is sent
to the compress. This s powerful ma.
chine into which four men jerk m ortli-
nary bale, which seems packed hard
enough to resist cannon shot, and, at
one squeeze, the balo becomes almost as
flat as pancake. The weight is all there,
but the bulk has been reduced two thirds.
Three bales can be squeezed into one by
the compress, and 500 pounds will stow
in the place of 500.
And now have not mentioned the
Inspecting, grading, weighing, buying,
rehooping and shipping, all Of which
give employment 10 thousands more md
cause millions of dollars TO change hands.
That bit of string begins to have moro
value in your eyes. eh! Well, let's see.
We 60 into the Enterprise Cotton Mill
at Augusta, GA. AS you stand at the
door moment let mo tell you that the
cotton mills Of America represent mil.
lions Of: dollars again, and that Genius
has fairly exhausted herself in invcnting
human that you almost expect to hear
it cali out to you. We first 20 into the
picking room. Here the cotton, lust as
it comes from the plantation, is fed into
machines called pickers. They remove
any refuse and blow the dust out. From
the pickers the cotton goes to the finish.
ers, who weave 1t into what il called
lap-or great white roll of coarse cotton
batting. 1t Is then fed through another
machine and comes out in rolls again,
which are called finishers' laps. 1t is
much whittier and softer than before. 1t
IS wound off on to great spools, and when
these spools arc full they are wheeled
into the carding room. This room is 24O
feet long by seventy.fve wide, and the
mil: can pick and card tllirtesn bales
per day. The stuff wound off on our
spools is not string, but soft, tender
rope the size Of chair round
Our, spools now 60 the railways in
what are called "drawings.". The four
ropes are there merged into one, and
run out into the cylinders called
railway cases. Then sixteen Of the ropes
are merged into four and run over draw
frame. Then four go over another frame
s and become one. Then the cans are
ranged alongside of machine called
sweater" and the ends of tho drawings
or ropes are run up to spindles and re.
wound. This time the rope is about half
the size of clothes line, and is called
"roping." They go from this to the
fine ffames," and two threads become
one. I. is then ready to 20 to the spin.
ming room on the third Aoor and be spun
on bobbins. The rope has now been re.
duced to the size of No. 40 thread. That
Y hnee than our stEiag; BIZ. let sns 80 on.
The bobbin goes to the spooling depart.
ment and Is there run of on to spoois,
One spool will hold all that can be wound
upon ten bobbins. Tho spools 20 to the
Warping frames, there being $50 separate
spools and $50 separate threads.
each of which must DO attached
to tho Warping beam. The thread must
be carried through hot air chest and
sized before ready for the web. The
threads then have tc be ;icked into a
n iythfspessn md eaoht gifl who follows
this work handles 1900 separate threads
twice over in about an hour When the
threads gars analtS In "hafness" and
drawn they are ready for the loom, aud
each girl attends to four, looms. Whom
you enter the weaving room you. hear,S
great ciashing and clankipgt tand every.
thing seems in confusion. But come, nm
to this loom. It IL weaving the cloth
which you may yet wear for shirt.I Eae
theIperfection ofTNeyement! Everything
is timed to the flftieth part of a second.
One shuttle down-one up. Here is an
eccentric-there is a crank-there a
shoulder motion 80 nearly human,
that you start back In surprise. In look.
ing over five yards of factory cloth Won
h.wilE'hnd aG least one rough, apot--aome.
z thing:liko a'knot. That ID caused by the
breaking of one Of the threads. An alarm
is rnng, and the girls deft fingers tie the
ends ift.a second. - I, s 4: :,
s.-Down, In, the basement are the monster
engine and boilers--up under the roof is
tho great tank for making the starch by.
steam 0n every fops We heae the ma,s
chimes humming, see every employee at
work, You SEQ every one in his place.
tEfetyk machine 10 doing its duty. !, In
: ttnis Seeming hdrly .bar,y IL tho tgrahjdest,
system of order. They know to a pound
how much raw cotton Is used al d tiay.--
how many yards are wosen who 2has