The Durant news. (Durant, Miss.) 1882-1985, 1944-11-16
BY Mrs. John B. Voskamp
Delta Council Staff


For years past cotton has served man.
kind as a protective agent. 1t is one OF
the greatest natural insulators. Now
comes King Cotton in a new form to
serve man in newer, broader ways. Cot
ton insulation not only offers a new
market for certain grades of cotton, but
will bring year-around comfort to mil
lions of American homes, stores, and
office buildings.
The use of cotton insulation has
steadily grown since the year 1889 when
tho United States Department of Agri-
culture first became interested in the
development of the project. In 1889, ap-
proximately 1000 bales were consumed
in the manufacture of insulation; in
1914, there is an anticipated consump-
ton of 10000 bales in this field.
Cotton insulating materials were first
made from a mixture Of about fifty
percent cotton waste (card strips) and
l~inters, but they are now made from
short staple low-grade cotton. The rea-
sons for this shift are several: O) the
need for total reduction of linters in
the manufacture Of p~lastics n gun
cotton; (2) the high cost Of card strips
which would be suitable for use in the
manufacture Of insulation; and CD the
huge surplus stocks of low-grade and
short staple cotton. Linters or cotton
waste will probably be used in consider
able quantities when conditions return
to normal, for ~linters may be used in
the loose fill, or blown, type of insula-
ton, an anticipated large field for this
material in the postwar period. But
raw cotton is being used at the present
time and will probably always be pre-
ferred for the present type of paper
backed blanket insulation, since it makes
a more resilient bait.
To describe this material, cotton in
s~ulation is a blanket of f~lameproof cot
ton, from one to three inches thick
fabricated with heavy moisture-resist-
ant paper on one side. The thicker type
of insulation is used for ceilings and
roofs, the thinner for other applica-
tons. Cotton insulation is prominently
economical, paying for itself in many
cases, since il saves up to thirty per-
cent of the cost of each winters fuel.
BY saving one years fuel cost in about
every three, the insulator has soon paid
for itself.
Now. what does this insulating ma
terial do? 1t keeps out winter cold and
summer heat, reducing the temperature
from eight to fifteen degrees in the
summer and keeping the same tempera-
ture twenty-four hours a day in a
house. The billions of microscopic ar
cells sealed in the cotton fibers which
are closely interwoven in the insulation
blanket account for this resistance TO
temperature change. Each of the myriad
cotton fibers is hollow, containing dead
air space. According to the U. 5. Bureau
of Standards, the ideal of perfection in
insulation is lead air, and these fibers,
clinging together, make springy, non
packing dead air space against the pas
sage of heat and cold. Actual tests snow
that a house with no insulation at all
reached a maximum of 108 degrees; a
house with GO pounds of mineral insula-
ton, 90 degrees; and a house with only
2s pounds of cotton insulation reached
a maximum of 97b degrees.
Although there are numerous other
kinds of insulating material, cotton IN
sulation has proven to be l212 to twenty
percent more effective thar any other
insulation available. The following
table will give you the comparative
thickness of insulation of various kinds