The Process of Making Cotton Cloth

THE PROCESS OF MAKING COTTON CLOTH

Based on a flow diagram contained in the book Job Descriptions for the Cotton Textile Industry, June 1939, United States Government Printing Office, Washington. In some steps of the flow diagram, both an "old style" and "new style" process is discussed. Only the old style steps are included below since they would have been used in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

The manufacture of cotton cloth is a complex process, involving many highly skilled workers, each performing a particular critical step in the overall process. The many complex steps can be divided into three general categories - Preparation, Spinning, and Weaving. In addition to this, there is the process of preparing the design that will be applied to the woven cloth. Cotton cloth manufacturing was indeed a "high-tech" venture in the 1880s!



PREPARATION

1. Bales of cotton of various grades are moved from the WAREHOUSE to the BALE OPENING room.

2. Selected bales are opened and placed in position beside the BREAKING and OPENING machine. This is actually a line of machines, working as a unit, that tear apart and partially clean matted, compressed, and baled cotton. The result is small loose bunches of cotton.

3. The cotton is then placed into the BLENDING MACHINE. This is a group of devices that are synchronized to proportion definite amounts of various grades of cotton which are to be blended together.

4. At this time, matted cotton and waste yarn salvaged from operations in the mill are placed into the WASTE MACHINE. This machine beats, pulls apart, and fluffs up waste cotton to prepare it for re-use.

5. Cotton from both the BLENDING MACHINE and the WASTE MACHINE is fed into the BREAKER PICKER. In this unit the raw cotton is partially cleaned by beating and fluffing and then fed into the FINISHER PICKER.

6. The FINISHER PICKER receives partially cleaned cotton in the form of LAP from the BREAKER PICKER and completes the cleaning and fluffing...