The First Process in Cloth Manufacture- Opening

By Robert B. Marnoch, Overseer of Carding, No. 1 Mill

Cocheco Chats, June 1921

If cotton is not in proper condition, that is, not too wet or too dry, when baled , the process of compressing it into bales does not damage it. The cotton is put up in bales so that it will take up the minimum space in transit to the mills. Cotton fibre is tubular and too much compressing will flatten the fiber and thus injure it.

 
George Hassan cutting the ties of a bale of cotton
 

Cotton standing in a bale for months cannot be properly worked until it is loosened up, and to do this by machinery is very damaging to the quality of the staple and increases the amount of waste. The best way to prepare cotton for the first process is to cut the ties that bind the bales and remove the bagging so the air can circulate through the cotton and loosen it up before it is put in the opener. After this is done, an assortment of bales is put along the side of the openers. Some cotton form each bale is fed to the opener so as to mix the different grades. It there are some bales of cotton in which the staple is too long or too short, they ought to be kept out so as to have the cotton as nearly uniform as possible.
 

Anastis Kappas, Feeding

The opener is the first machine that the cotton goes through in the manufacture of cloth. It opens up the cotton, transforming it from a body of matted fibre to a light fluffy mass. During this process much sand and dirt is shaken out.
 

Pietro Gatrakas at Delivery End

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