The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1889-07-18
To Inventors and Investors.

To the Editor Of the Ne,cs and Courier
Whilst we are on q boom as regards oil
mills and factories, etc, I will suggest
that the inventive minds Of the mechani-
cal genuises of the country be also
directed towards other and no less
important discoveries and improvements.
I have for several years past noted the
want of an establishment where stained
and dirty cotton could be bleached and
cleansed. In unfavorable seasons for
gathering or picking cotton, q large pro.
portion Of the crop is rated at the lower
grades, and is sold frequently at q differ.
ence of 2 to q cents below the better
qualities.
Cotton is stained from three Causes !:
First, by falling to the ground, being
colored by the soil, OF. the lower bolls
may be stained by the dirty water which
splatters on them during showers and
tacks it in the boil after long spells of
wet warm weather; and thirdly, by the
effects of frost. When immature cotton
encounters weather cold enough for frost
in the mornings, with warmer tempera.
ture during the day, there is always great
discoloration of. the staple, and everybody
is anxious to pick over his crop at once
to get rid of the stained articles. The
staining in this instance is produced as
follows: When.the boil, still full of water
and immature, ia assailed by frost the
veins or sap vesicles are ruptured by its
actions, and as soon as the thaw occurs
the sap is allowed to flow out amongst the
lint and ne have discoloration from ex.
travasation of sap, just as discoloration
occurs in the animal kingdom by
extravasation of blood by the rupture of
vein. Now it is a we'll known fact
that the lint Ii. Q. the staple) of most Of
these stains is just as strong and as long
as the better grades, and also that only q
few days of sunshine, rain and wind are
necessary to bleach this, the ugliest stain
of all, as white as snow.
But, as remarked above, difference
of the 81 cents is made when we go to
market. Why not then have some
market centre, either at Charleston or
Columbia, where large bleaching estab.
lishments should be erected for the pur-
pose of dealing solely in these grades,
where orr farmers could get something
like fair prices for now inferior grades
which knock off 80 largely of our profits?
What the exact process is to be I am not
prepared to say !; whether by gases or
aolutions remains,to be tested. But there
is no doubt of its practicability, for ma.
ture shows the experiment successfully
performed many times each winter in the
fields of every cotton raiser in the South.
The profits of the lower grades now
accrue to manufacturers, who spin the
cotton and bleach the yarns, which are
easily handled, and / am told that
about 10 cents worth of chlorine gas will
bleach bale of cotton-I mean the
yarns of q bale-as white as is desirable.
Here, :.hen, is new industry for the
New South, one calculated to keep money
at home and where most needed-in the
pocket of our farmers. Another matter
of great Importance is the manufacture
of gin which will lint the seed ready for
the oil mill. Cotton seed, as now sold,
have adhering to them considerable
amount of lint, which adds largely to the
resources of the mills. This lint on the
seed is bought, rating bushel of seed at
40 pounds and price at 20 cents pei
tushel, att of q cent per pound, and it,
removal ia by process necessary to the
proper extraction of the oil, and may be
said, therefore, to cost nothing; and yet
the lint is worth, I hear, 6 to cents pei
pound. Now, what is needed is gin, as
is usual, with another set of saws below
to clean that is, thoroughly lint the
seed as they fall from the SAWS above,
and blow this lint into the lint room OF
condenser roll, Incorporating it thorough.
ly with the poor cotton, and we have this
immense drain flowing from us returned
to the pockets of those entitled to 1.-THE
farmer who made the cotton.
charge nothing for these ideas, which
are practicable, for I shall be amply re-.
paid if some chemist and mechanic will
do at once what will be done ere long
perfect the arrangements and details for
the successful application Of my ideas to
the approaching crop. 1t is about time to
begin in earnest the fight, not only
against jute, but also against tariff, rail.
road exorbitant eights, trusts and
money rings generally, which take our
money away and blackguard us in return
for it. T. w. WOODWARD
RocEtons s. c., July 13.