Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1913-08-29
WONDERFUL PROCESS IS THIS
Man Says He Can ArtifieiaIly Mature
Z Cnfknn a.

Man Says he Can RrtihciaiIy Mature
/ Cotton.
Every now and then the world Is sur
prised by the perfection of some great
Invention, but we feel sure that none
has been more wonderful than one
claimed by Prof John B. Hall, of
Philadelphia in a talk at Barnwell. He
came to Barnwell, referred to Col Har-
ry d. Calhoun by Commissioner E. ].
Watson, in order to try bolls for ex-
perimental purposes at his station in
Pennsylvania. We copy the following
from the Barnwell People of Thursday
in regard to his visit to that city:
That with new process that he has
1 only recently perfected he can do in
two hours what 1t takes nature weeks
to accomplish and do 1t better at that,
was the assertion made by John B.
Hall, Of Philadelphia, to number of
planters and representative business
men in the directors room of the Home
bank of Barnwell, Friday evening. For
an hour or more Mr.. Hall told Of the
results that have been accomplished,
and 1t was like listening to fairy tale
wherein the good fairy waves her mag
pen. But that he was In earnest no
one doubted. He was not trying to sell
anything; he had no apparent reason
to wish to humbug any one; he was
not asking for something for nothing
on the contrary he paid and was VIII
ling to pay well for what he wanted;
|. e., green bolls Of cotton. He bought
several hundred pounds of short and
long staple cotton bolls at from five to
seven and a half cents a pound, de-
pending on the variety Of the cotton.
and In addition made arrangements for
the purchase Of several thousand
pounds more to be shipped to Philadel-
At present the experiments are being
carried on at government station.
Mr.. Hall exhibited a number of open
bolls Of cotton which he said were ma
tured by his process. One of them was
partly rotted, while another had been
punctured by the boil weevil in several
places. Yet they had opened and by
dyeing the staple a part of 1t can be
used. The boil weevil has cost the
dollars by destroying the bolls before
they have reached maturity. Mr.. Hall
claims that with his process the boil
weevil will be starved out.
At preesnt the experiments are being
carried on secretly as letters patent
have not yet been secured, but the
method of procedure Is as follows: In
stead of waiting until the bolls have
fully opened, and the cotton Is damag-
ed by the weather, the green bolls are
picked like roses" 1t doesn't matter
If they are one, two, three, four or five
weeks from maturity. They are then
poured into an immense hopper and
pass into the machine where the ma
turing process is done. Then the seed
cotton Is separated from the boil and Is
carried to the gin.
But what Is just as wonderful Is
that Mr., Hall states that the by-pro-
ducts that can be made from bolls and
stalks are as valuable as the cotton it.
self. He stated that an excellent grade
of rubber. paper pulp and gunpowder
are among the by-prpducts.
Now, II he can make good" on his
claim he is perhaps the most wonder
full man Of the age. Think a minute
what it would mean. A saving Of waste
by eliminating immature or frost-bit-
ten bolls and of the cotton that is
blown off by the wind after maturity.
The saving of labor, for by picking the
whole boil from the plant one work.
man could do the work of several. 1t
now costs something like $100,O00,0 900
year to gather the cotton crop Of the
south, and by cutting this in half there
would be saving Of s60,000,Q00 yearly.
Now as to the texture of the staple
that is artifcially matured; Mr.. Hall
claims that 1t Is far superior to the
same grade Of cotton naturally ma
tured because cotton as matured
now on the field while waiting tol
be picked. is subjected to the dews cr|
chill Of the night followed by the heat
Of the sun next day or possibly some
days of rain or climatic conditions of
some kind, together with the dirt or
dust brown on the cottfn: The gloss
would be Of a bFilliancy and whiteness,
far superior to that possible on any
Gotten naturally matured and exposed
to deterioratipg weather conditions.
The fibre alst would certainly be much
stronger for the same reason" 1t Is
pointed out that by picking the bolls
three weeks or month before maturi- |
ty, the strength of the plant would be
increased and the remaining bells
would grow larger from the increased
substance the would obtain from the
plant, and in addition the bQlls would
be saved from the weather and insect
pests. The use of this process would
also result in the saving of the top
crop, which is Sc often killed by frost.
The time consumed in maturing by
the Hall process is said to be very
short, ranging from two to three hours.
II 10 estimated that one man can ma
ture from six to ten bales a day. ac-
cording to the size of the machine.