Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-12-03

methods First, color of the cotton is
compared with standard tinted glasses
which are combined in such a way as to
exactly initiate the color of the cotton
These glasses are then placed in the
same vacuum tubes to be compared with
the cotton when il is reopened AT some
distant date. Second. the color OF the
cotton Is preserved by mixing chemically
pure pigments whose history in art shows
them to have great permanency. Third
after the formulas for the mixture have
been determined, the ingredients are pre-
pared separately and stored in vacuum:
the idea being that when the cotton is
opened in the future these three known
permanent chemical pigments can lie
mixed III accordance with the formulas
stored with them and reproduce the color
Of the cotton. If when they are so
mixed they give the tint as the
cotton. it will be corrooorative evidence
that the cotton has not changed in color
. and vice versa.
The three methods are applied by using
the Ives tntometer. This is an optical
device which records in the form Of
number a color effect produced by the
revolutions of glass prisins.
The desirabilty of establishing a uni
form basis for cotton grading was long
recognized by a great majority of those
interested in the cotton industry, and in
the act making appropriations for the De-
partment of Agriculture for the year 1863
the Secretary of Agriculture was author
lied and directed TO establish official
standards of cotton.
4 committee representing every branch
of the cotton industry was convened in
Washington to fix upon and prepare sam
pies of nine official grades of white Amer
lean cotton, as required by law. Stand
ards and types of grades actually in use
had been previously secured from numer-
Gus cotton exchanges and markets in this
country and Europe. This committee sub
United a unanimous report TO the Secre-
tary. fixing nine grades as the official
standards.
The next step was the preparation Of
copies OF these grades and then TO offer
them for sale. The committee recon-
nended that the grades should not go into
effect antil September. 1910 This gave
the department. better part of Il year in
which TO prepare and sue the grades.
Experts al once set 10 work TO make a
careful study of cotton grading as il was
practiced in various parts of the world.
Grades were assembled from abroad and
all parts OF the United States and the
methods of their preparation studied.
The value Of the American cotton-hber
crop last year was estimated at S1npso
90. Only about one-thrd of the aver
age American crop is consumed at home.
If the entire quantity Were used in the
manufacturers of this country the total
value OF cotton goods made therefrom
would approximate Sl,2J9.0a.en As
tWo-thirdS Of orr raw cOston is utilized
by tofeign manufacturers in the produce
lion of goods which are of finer average
quality than those of domestic manufac-
ture the value of the goods manWac-
tured from the average American cotton
crop might he estimated at not less than
S203cJD.GGt.
AS a further illustration of the indus
trial Importance of American cotton IL
is claimed that not less than 3.oDa0O
persons are employed in its production
and handling and the Industries for which
il furnishes the raw material OF this
number about 6Vpt.oN0 are farmers and
farm la borers; about 100000 are other
pffsy p,ad
raw material in the United States; and at
least oa1,o00 are employed in foreign
countries in connection with its trans
portation and in the manufactures OF
which it forms the basis.
Copyright 1911, by William L. Altdorfefl