Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 145, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 June 1919 — Cotton of Commerce. [ARTICLE]

Cotton of Commerce.

The transformation of the fleecy white mass gathered from the bolls into the finished cotton fabric involves many operations. The lint which is dropped into the pickers’ baskets has clinging to its fibers numerous little hard seeds, all of which must be removed. The process of removing the seeds is known as ginning. When the cotton arrives at the factory it is run through various machines, which free it of dirt and form it into a lap or roll. It is then passed through rollers covered with steel wire points, a process which makes the fibers lie in straight parallel rows, except as they curl or twist about other fibers. The curls and twists are straightened out in a stretching frame and the fibers are then twisted and wound on bobbins of decreasing size until the strands are fine enough to be spun into thread or yarn. When the product is ready for the spinning machine it is called roving. From the spinning machine the thread Or yarn is tiair an to the looms to be made into cloth.