COTTON MACHINERY DEVELOPMENT

Plantation Cotton Gin and Press

Above is shown the type of ginning outfit adopted many years after Whitney's invention  of the saw gin. One will note from the picture the cotton was unloaded from wagon to a platform, taken into the house and placed in bins. It was then removed from these bins and placed on a platform on a level with the top of the gin itself, and a man standing in front of the gin would rake the cotton forward and feed it into the gin by hand. The lint cotton doffed from the saws was blown into a lint room and from this room it was taken and then placed in a wooden screw press on the outside of the building, which pressed the cotton into bale forth.

The horsepower used was four mules . . . two hitched to each end of the lever as shown in the picture. The screw of the press was wooden, and mules attached to the levers from each side furnished the power for the press. This was the type outfit used for ginning the cotton in the early 1830's. At this time mules and horses furnished the principal source of power for ginning and pressing.

Gins were made in small quantities in blacksmith shops and small manufacturing shops as early as 1816. Even after Daniel Pratt built a large plant in Prattville, Alabama, in 1838, the ginning in most parts was still being handled as shown in the picture. It is interesting to note this type of ginning outfit was used until the 1860's. While a few of the planters later used steam power, the size of the gin when using horsepower was limited to approximately fifty saws. With the use of steam power the number of saws were increased to as many as eighty.

1844 Model Pratt Gin  Located at Continental Eagle Corporation

It is inconceivable that there were no improvements in the method of ginning until the early 1870's. At this time a feeder was invented for feeding the cotton into the gins, thus eliminating hand feeding. The advent of the feeder also brought about the condenser, a mechanism to be placed to the rear of the gins to catch the lint cotton. By this same process the lint cotton was formed into bats, yet permitting the air to escape through fine wire drums.

Also in the 1870's the iron or steel screw press was introduced. This press was so constructed as to permit the cotton to be ginned and baled in the same room. It was designed to be used in the rear of the condenser.

With the mechanical improvements and the use of steam power, custom ginning was brought into existence. Commercial ginning appeared to be profitable; therefore, many gins were made available for public use by their owners. Heretofore each planter had his own ginning outfit. In some instances custom gins contained two eight-saw gins and a single box press. This was the largest type outfit in use at the time R. S. Munger brought out his complete system outfit in 1882-84. In 1886 there were between 30,000 and 40,000 gin outfits in existence in the United States.

It is amazing that the gin manufacturers of the day made no presses; they made only gins, feeders and condensers, thus depending upon other companies to manufacture presses.

Sectional View Single Huller Gin

The early frosts in damp weather frequently rotted the bolls while they were still on the stalks. Often, under these conditions, while cotton was being picked, the bolls would pull off very easily. When bolls and cotton were fed together into a gin, naturally the sample of cotton was damaged. To overcome this, the first attempt was made in 1838 to produce a machine to remove the hulls, but the effort failed. At a later date a single rib huller gin was invented. This huller had a knee or knuckle on a single rib and as the cotton was fed into the outer roll box, the saw projecting into it would draw the cotton past this knee into the ginning roll box, thus knocking out the hulls. This type of rib was in use as late as 1920.

Sectional View Double Rib Huller Gin

In 1882 or 1883 a double rib huller gin was brought out by the Daniel Pratt Gin Company. This separated the hulls from the seed, which the single rib huller gin could not do.

In clean cotton there was no advantage over the single rib huller, but in very hully cotton, and after the seed became a commodity, the double rib had every advantage.

Manufacturers of Cotton Gins about 1886 included:

Eagle Cotton Gin Company, Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Hall Gin Company, Ossining, New York. Brown Gin Company, New London, Connecticut. Carver Gin Company, East Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Lummus Cotton Gin Company, Juniper, Georgia. E. Van Winkle Gin Company, Atlanta, Georgia. Massey Gin Company, Macon, Georgia. Pratt Gin Company, Prattville, Alabama. Smith Gin Company, Birmingham, Alabama. Kingsland & Douglas, St. Louis, Missouri. Gullett Gin Company, Amite, Louisiana. Chatham Machine Company, Bryan, Texas. Winship Gin Company, Atlanta, Georgia. Milburn Gin & Machine Company, Memphis, Tennessee.

Manufacturers of Cotton Presses, 1886 to about 1889, included:

Reynolds Company, New Orleans, Louisiana. Barbour Machine Works, Anniston, Alabama. Caldwell & Company, (Hydraulic Press), Richmond, Virginia. Progress Manufacturing Company, (Lever Press), Meridian, Mississippi. Liddell Company, (Double Screw Press), Charlotte, North Carolina. Winship Machine Company, Atlanta, Georgia. L.. Van Winkle Company, Atlanta, Georgia.

Gins and presses were sold almost exclusively through agents, but after the system ginning outfit was developed by R. S. Munger in 1886, they were sold directly to customers. Other manufacturers were forced to develop a system outfit and sell directly to customers or drop out of the business. The latter prevailed in most instances. Those who remained in the competitive field had to develop a system outfit. Several patents were secured on a pneumatic elevator, the type used in system outfits other than the Munger system of belt distributor.

05/09/2007