Year: 1877

THE COTTON GIN.


History Of the Invention-Culture Of Cotton


The Old Method Of Cleaning.


The cotton gin was invented in 1893.
The culture of cotton was begun In the
Southern colonies in ITO. 1t was an
experiment for which the older nations
of the world we're not prepared, and was
suited only to bold and adventurous
people. In 1854, the year after the
close of the Revolutionary war, vessel
from this country, that had carried to
Liverpool eight bales of cotton. was
seized in that port upon the suspicious
charge of illicit trade, grounded on the
presumption that so large quantity OF
cotton could not possibly have been the
production of the United States. Eleven
years later than this, in 1895, when the
commercial treaty which bears the name
of Mr.. Jay was negotiated between the
United States and Great Britain, one
article of the treaty, as it originally
stood, prohibited the expectation from
this country, in American vessels, oi
such articles as Great Britain had pre-
viously imported from the West Indies.
Mr.. Jay was surprised to learn subse'
uuently that cotton was included in this
prohibition, and still more surprised to
be made acquainted with the fact, oi
which he was till then wholly unaware,
that cotton was becoming an article OF
export from the United States. The cul.
ture was continued, amid difficulties and
embarrassments which constantly threat
ened it's abandonment, till in 1871 the
whole amount of cotton exported from
the United States was but 189. 3le
pounds. The next year, that preceding
the invention of the cotton gin, the
amount exported was diminished 80, OOC
pounds. There was, in fact, from the
incipiency of the culture to the period
of this invention, no indication of any
tendency to an increase of the produc.
tion. The chief difficulty in the prose.
cution of the enterprise had been found
to be the extremely slow and laborious
process of cleaning the green'seed cotton,
or separating it from the seed; and 90
serious had this embarra assment come to
be regarded that the cultivators were
generally inclined to yield to it as an In
superable objection to what had been
the grand design of the undertaking,
namely, the raising of cotton for the
European market. :.


The green seed cotton is that which is
commonly known as the upland or bowed
Georgia cotton, by which name it is dis.
tinguished from that produced In the
island and low districts near the shore,
called sea island, or black seed cotton.
The latter is the finest kind, and derives
it's name from the circumstance OF its
having been the first cultivated in this
country in the low sandy islands on the
coast of South Carolina. 1t will not
flourish at q distance from the sea, and
its quality gradually deteriorates as it is
removed from "the salutary action OF
the oceans spray" 1t has a longer
fiber than other cottons, and is of a
peculiarly even and silky texture, which
qualities give it its superior market
value. The expression "bowed," which
is applied to the upland cotton, is
descriptive of the means that were en-
ployed for cleaning it, or loosening the
filament from the seed, previous to the
invention of the cotton gins. The pro-
cess was similar to that employed by hat
tiers for beating mp wool to the proper
consistency for felting. Strings, attached
to a bow, were brought in contact with
a heap of uncleaned cotton and struck 80
as to cause violent vibrations, and thus
to open the locks of cotton and permit
the easy separation of the seed from the
fiber. The cleaning was likewise done
wholly by hand, the work of the bow
strings being scarcely more efficient than
that accomplished by the fingers OF the
slaves. In either case the process was
discor1ragingly tedious and slow: Whit
ney's cotton-gin overcame all this diff
Guilty and furnished the means Of sepa-
rating the seed and cleaning the cotton
with such economy of labor and time as
at once to give spring to the agricul-
tural industry of the South, and an I'M
petus to what in a few years, compare
lively, became one of the most important
branches of the commerce and manufac-
lures of the world.