The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-03-17
PROSPECTSOF THE
DYE|NG INTERESTS
An Able Paper by Or. G. S.
Traps Of This Place.
A GROWING INDUSTRY
The Cotton Industry Makes the Dye
ing Industry Necessary.
LETTERS Fsoa LARGE DYE WORKS
Thsrs Are OILY .FOrty-'ivs Gotten Mills in
This State hat Dye Their Own Pro-
duct. Tie Interest is Rap
idlv Grnw,ng One.
idly Growing One,

(By DR.. G. S. Traps, Assistant Professor
of Chemistry, North Carolina College of
Agriculture and Mechanic Arts.)
The closing decades of the nineteenth
century have brought a marvellous devel-
opment of certain manufactures in North
Carolina. few years ago this State
was ranked among the purely agricultural
States, and the chief distinction accorded
1t lin school geographies) was as pro-
Queer Of tar pitch and turpentine- NOW
cne7sixteenth of the spindles and looms
in tie United States which produce cotton
goods are in North Carolina, and in THIS
respect it has advanced to the fourtn
rank in the list of manufacturing States
Massachusetts, comes first, Rhode Island
second. South Carolina third and North
Carolina fourth. This development has
taken place in less than twenty years.
In 1880 North Carolina had about thirty
five cotton factories with about 100000
spindles and 2,4C0 looms. In 1890 the
number of factories had more than
doubled, being 81 in number, and the CAPT.
tai invested had swelled form $25O0,OOO to
ever $40. 900 900. Four more years brought
the number of establishments up to 146,
an increase of more than so per cent,
and in 1900 the number of establishments
engaged in the manufacture OF cotton
goods was 261, with others under con-
struction, besides sixteen wooden mills,
three silk mills and one jute mill.
A large number of cotton mills in North
Carolina arc engaged in spinning the cot
ten into yarn for use elsewhere This is
obviously the simplest form which cotton
manufacture can take An end to de-
velopment in this direction is already in
sight unless, indeed, new markets are
crcncd to the spinners. The steps re-
Gently taken by the Southern Cotton Spin
ners' Association to curtail the produc-
ton of spun yarns show that this state
ment is true, and that unless a remedy
Is found. increase in the number of fac
tories for spinning only will be danger
GUS The remedy is to find new markets
fer the yarn in foreign countries to send
out the spun goods instead of the raw
staple. Another remedy is TO increase
the home market. II this can be done
steady growth of the industry may be ex-
pected Quite number of North Carolina
mills carry the cotton beyond the yarn
stage and produce finished cloth, colored
and uncolored. AS a rule, these goods
are of cheaper grade than those made IN
the North, there being only few mills
which manufacture the higher grades 1t
seems probable that the time will soon
come when what was said above in refer
cncc to the production of yarn will be
true also of cheap cotton goods; indeed
even now the market is nearly overstock-
cd. Unless new markets are developed
the limit of consumption of cheap cotton
goods will soon be reached, and the
more mills that engage in their manu-
facturc the greater the danger that
prices will be forced below profitable
ones.
With diminishing opportunities for de-
vclopment in the production of yarns and
coarse cotton goods, which must be true
unless new markets are developed, in
what directions can textile industries ex-
pand in the South? The answer to this
question seems to be, in the production of
cotton goods which require better and
mere complex machinery, and a higher
degrees of skill in dyeing, weaving and
ether operations There is a class of
goods which requires more complex ma
chinery and at the same time may be Of
very low or very high grade. l refer to
prints This is field as yet untouched
in North Carolina, or, in fact, anywhere
in the South.
OF the 26l establishments In NORM Car
DINA engaged in the production of cotton
goods, forty-five dye and produce colored
goods. such as ginghams, osnaburgs,
chambrays, yarns, etc.. few other mills
do a little dyeing; eleven of the twenty
eight knitting mills dye; eight WOODEN
mills dye The silk mills send their goods
outside the State to be dyed. There are
three dive works in the State-the Ameri-
. ~ of aiyy
with capacity Of 10000 pounds of raw
cotton a day; the Tarboro Dye Works
at Tarboro, which dyes black and tan
on hosiery yarns, and the Durham Dyeing
Co.. which dyes yarn and knit goods.
There is one bleachery. the Kerr Bag
Manufacturing Co. at Concord, with ca