The Story of CONTINENTAL GIN COMPANY 1900-1952

by Algernon L. Smith        edited by James F. Sulzby, Jr.

This web folder is a collection of histories most of the information was from the book published by Continental Gin in 1952. This book was presented to the employees upon the 52nd anniversary celebration of the Continental Gin Company's organization by the President Merrill E. Pratt. The Buttons above will direct you to different sections of the book. Below is the forward and introduction.

FOREWORD

The statements contained in these accounts of the Continental Gin Company and the predecessor companies which augmented its organizations are based on facts known to the author and, with a few exceptions, the minutes of meetings of stockholders and directors of the respective companies.

In presenting this brief review of the Company's history and record of development, the author has tried to give a picture of the founders and their faith in the industry in which they devoted their lives.

There is perhaps no industry in America which can boast of greater men than the cotton gin manufacturers and especially those who played a full and worthy part in making the Continental Gin Company an enterprise with a Standard of Excellence. The Company has a heritage of which any company should be proud. This heritage has served as a guiding-light for Continental Gin Company in its manufacture of fine products. This heritage also serves as a constant reminder of the principles of free enterprise, the system for which the Company stands.

The Continental Gin Company enjoys the prestige of being the foremost cotton gin manufacturer in the world, serving the nation and the world. This is the story the author has attempted to tell.

JAMES F. SULZBY, JR.

COTTON

HIGHLIGHTS in the history of the Continental Gin Company could not well be written without a brief story of cotton, the king among crops of the South for generations. Cotton has created new industries, giving employment to thousands and still holds reign over other agricultural developments.

There is historical evidence that cotton was grown in India for the making o£ clothing at a very early period, and that it gradually found its way to China, Persia and Egypt. Herodotus, the Greek historian, who lived in the fifth century, B. C., makes specific reference to the growth of cotton in India, and Pliny referred to its cultivation in the upper part of Egypt. Christopher Columbus found cotton plants wild in America, and Cortez on the occasion of his visit to the Aztec Emperor, Montezuma, in the city of 'Mexico in 1519, was presented with princely gifts of finely wrought cotton fabrics.

The cotton plant is one of the most wonderful products of nature. It has clothed mankind for many centuries, and has ever kept pace with the march of civilization. Its seed has also become of great value.

As civilization penetrates into the hidden nooks and corners of the earth, and as standards of living are elevated throughout the world, there is a greater and greater demand for cotton. The cotton plant is indigenous to both hemispheres, and its cultivation today literally encircles the globe. The Southern States of the United States produce more cotton than any other section of the world; however, its cultivation has increased in Russia, India, Egypt, Africa and South America.

In 1933 the Southern States were growing between fifty and sixty percent of the world's crop but with the New Deal crop control other countries increased very greatly their production. Presently the Southern States furnish from thirty to forty percent of the world's crop.

The history of the practical cultivation of cotton in America dates from 1621 when it was introduced into what is now the State of Virginia, with seed from the East Indies. The effort was merely experimental and was extended to Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey without any very encouraging results. The real impetus to its cultivation in the Southern Belt was received when it was introduced into South Carolina and Georgia, in 1733-34. Its cultivation was extended to Louisiana as early as 1741, but production in what are now the Southern States of the United States was seriously impeded by the difficulty of separating the seed from the lint.

Churka-The first Known Type of Cotton Gin  Located at the Continental Eagle Corporation for Long Staple Cotton From India by Walter Going 1927

The cotton gin used during the early part of the Eighteenth Century was a modification of the "Churka" or India Roller Gin, and while some decided improvements had been made upon the original type, which facilitated the ginning of Sea Island or long staple cotton, the roller gin was of limited capacity. The separation of the seed from the lint was commonly done by the hands of slaves at night-fall, after the day's work in the fields had been completed. .

Southern planters realized the vast possibilities in the growth of cotton, provided some quick method of seed separation could be devised. They were almost in despair when the man of the hour, Eli Whitney, a native of Massachusetts and a graduate of Yale College, journeyed to Savannah, Georgia, by boat in 1792. He became acquainted with Mrs. Nathaniel Green, widow of the American Revolutionary General, who invited him to visit her at her residence, "Mulberry Grove," near that city. While a guest in this hospitable home, Whitney frequently heard conversations among planters deploring the lack of a method for rapid and effective seed separation. Inspired and encouraged by Mrs. Green who had noted his inventive talent, ' Whitney set to work and a year later filed petition for a patent. The gin, invented by Whitney, was described as having a wooden cylinder, into which were driven spikes or teeth of iron wire, for the purpose of separating the lint from the seed. It is noteworthy that in the drawings which accompanied the documents a saw is shown, and the conclusion is logical that Whitney intended to supersede the spikes with saws in the first gin. The patent was issued to Whitney on March 14, 1794, signed by George Washington, President of the United States, Edmond Randolph, Secretary of State, and William Bradford, Attorney General.

Note: The Whitney drawings referred to in this book were drawn after the Patent office burned in 1836. The original Whitney Patent did not make many reference to saws, only spikes. The drawings were drawn without a copy of a  original patent found in Georgia. At the time of the redrawing all the gins used the Henry Odgen Holmes patent with saws. Whitney's later models were built with saws. Refer to information found in another web folder.

The manufacture of gins under Whitney's supervision began soon after the receipt of the patent. Its effect upon the production of cotton is shown by the fact that the amount marketed in 1793 was 63,000 bales of 500 pounds each, while in 1796, when Whitney's gin had been in use for barely two years, the amount had increased to 200,000 bales. It was in this latter year that patents were issued to H. Ogden Holmes, for an improved gin having circular saws fixed at regular intervals upon a cylinder which passed through spaces between ribs. Since that date, the saw gin has been used almost exclusively in the ginning of cotton. The bitter controversy as to which inventor should be given credit for the modern gin is now ancient history, and Eli Whitney, by virtue of his priority in the field, has become generally accepted as the father of the saw gin.

 Whitney Gin-Model of the Whitney gin

This model was shown with saws not spikes.

Whitney's invention marked the first epoch in the history of cotton growing as a profitable branch of agriculture, and while his invention unquestionably solved the problem, many improvements were necessary before the gin could attain its full measure of usefulness. Systematic manufacture of gins was lacking for many years, as Whitney's company could not supply a fraction of the demand. His plan of charging the states royalties for the manufacture of gins not only kept him involved in lawsuits with state authorities and planters but retarded the development of the manufacture of gins as an industry.

The first cotton gin in the eastern portion of the Mississippi Territory, the portion which is now Alabama, appears to have been constructed by a Pennsylvania Jew, Abram Mordecai. In 1804 he erected a gin house at the junction of the Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers, which was an advantageous location for Indians bringing raw cotton down the rivers by canoe. Some of the first bales are said to have gone to the nephew of Governor Defort at New Orleans and brought a price of thirty-three cents a pound. Three years later, cotton receipts obtained from the owner of a gin were made legal tender and passed as domestic bills of exchange.

Because of the important position and lively interest in cotton, there was generally a succession of gin factories of small proportions until 1832, which is the second epoch in the history of cotton gins. This marks the beginning of a period of notable improvements in the gins and in their manufacture, both of which had a most important bearing on the development of cotton grown in the Southern States and in other points of the world.

  05/09/2007