Cotton Manufacture Fig. 1.—Saw Gin.details

In order to remove the seed from the [cotton] fibre, the raw cotton must undergo the process of ‘ginning.’

Ginning establishments are mostly situated in the vicinity of the cotton fields, and the machines are usually worked by steam power.—Two kinds of gins are used—the saw gin and roller gin. A primitive method of ginning is still carried on in some parts of India by means of the Churka gin. In America, the saw gin (Plate I., Fig. 1) is the one mostly in use, as it gets through more work; but the fibre is liable to be more damaged than with the roller gin.

The saw gin consists of a series of circular saws with fine teeth a revolving with a portion of their circumference projecting through a grid b into a receptacle for raw cotton c. In revolving, the saws tear the lint or fibre from the seed and carry it through the grid, when it is removed from th saws and carried to a suitable receptacle. (p. 1655)