The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1895-11-17
CIRCULAR BALEs OF COTTON.
Story of tie Invent on Of the New
Mclhud tor Comprising Cotton.
.cial to the News Ind Observer
WASHINGTON. ID. c.. Nov.

AAC1iINOION, -. -, NOV. IO.
Senator Jones. of Arkansas, has al
ways been a poor, plodding country
lawyer, satisfied with limited prac-
tice and small fees. He came mod
estly into the Senate without any tOot-
ing of trumpets or newspaper accounts
Of his achievements. He appeared
seldom in debate, but made himself
in the committee room, and was soon
recognized as a man of ability, Sc that
when a wise, prudent, and cOnserva-
tive manager was needed for the tariff
bill in1894 he was selected as chairman
of the subcommittee. He has lived
unostentatiously since he came to
Washington. His family has not APP
peared in society, and have been re-
garded as plain and unpretentiOus peo-
pie.
But il is now reported that Mr.Jones
is going to be a millionaire, all as re-
waxd for his patience and faith in an
eccentric inventor by the name of
Graves, down in Arkansas, whom he
has befriended and supported from his
own slim income for many years.
Graves is a man of inventive genius,
but a ne'er-do-well, and entirely with
out money making facilities. He has
produced several useful mechanisms,
but they have never paid him anything
and he lived in penury, and often in
priyation until Senator Jones acci-
dentally saw method he had con-
trived for compressing cotton into cir
cular instead of angular bales. 1t oc-
Cured to him that this was a very inn
portant matter, and he encouraged
Graves to develop the idea, in the mean
time furnishing him money to feed
himself and his family, and to buy ma
terial to carry on his experiments.
As a consideration for this assistance
the inventor assigned to his benefactor
a half interest in the patents.
Mr.Jones one day happened to men
tion the circumstances to his colleague
Senator Camden. The latter after
ward related the story to William
Johnston, the proprietor of the line of
big cargo steamers that carry cotton
and cattle between Baltimore and Liv-
erpool. Mr.. Johnston was SO much
interested in the subject that he inn
mediately started for Little Rock,
where he obtained from Senator Jones
and Graves an option upon all the pat
ent rights, and at once organized a
company to manufacture and operate
the machines, Jones and Graves being
gIgen 40 per cent. of the shares of the
company.
The economy of the machine was
soon demonstrated 1t packs the cot
ton so that so per cent. of freight
charges can be saved. The bale has
the shape of a cylinder instead of a
cube, and the same amont of cotton
that fills a space forty cubic feet in an
angular bale, occupies only twenty
Two cubic feet when shaped like cyl
finder. The first shipment of cylinder
bales was made early in the present
| season, and about one thousand have
been sent thus far. Although as heavy
as the old-fashioned bale, they are
much more easily and quickly handled
| for they can be rolled in and out OF
warehouses and railway cars. The
| company has engaged as its superin-
| tendent a Mr.. Anderson, who was con
nected with the electrical department
| at the Worlds Fair, and they are be
| ginning to place the machines upon
| the market. Mr.. Johnston believes
| there is more money in it than in any
| other invention since the telephone
Senator Morton Butler was in Wash
ington to-day. He recently visited
| New York, where he purchased new
printing press for his paper, the eau.
| casian.
Mrs. j. Y. Joyner, wife of Prof. J. Y
| Joyner, Of Greensboro Normal School
and two children, are visiting at DR.
| G. w. Sanderlin's.
DIR. Sterling Rufin leaves tonight
| for North Carolina