The Journal of Cotton Science 24:34–43 (2020) 34 http://journal.cotton.org, © The Cotton Foundation 2020 ENGINEERING AND GINNING Development of the Cotton Gin Sidney E. Hughs, Gregory A. Holt, Carlos B. Armijo*,Derek P. Whitelock, and Thomas D. Valco ABSTRACT THE BEGINNINGS OF GINNING Cotton fiber was first used in 6000 B.C. The inning, in its simplest context, refers to the two New World cotton species that are most of Gprocess of separating cotton fibers from the today’s production include G. hirsutum (Upland) seeds. The first cultivation of cotton and use of cotton and G. barbadense (Extra Long Staple [ELS]). fiber are lost in the mists of time. The first cotton The first cotton gin existed by the th5 century producer had to remove the fiber from the seed to A.D (single-roller gin). The next development utilize the fiber (Hughs and Holt, 2015). Although was the churka gin (double-roller gin) which it is possible to remove the fiber from the seed with ginned cotton five times faster than the single- the thumb and forefinger, it is a slow and laborious roller gin. The churka gin was widely used in process and probably quickly led to the invention North America by 1750 and ginned both Upland of the first cotton gin (Lakwete, 2003). The term and Sea Island (ELS) cotton. The spike-tooth “gin” might be a contraction of the word “engine” cotton gin was developed by Eli Whitney in and is applied to any mechanical device that applies 1794. Hodgen Holmes developed a continuous force to remove cotton fiber (lint) from cottonseed flow gin with toothed saw blades in 1796. These (Vandergriff, 1997). were a different concept than the double-roller The development of the cotton gin was dependent gins. Holmes’ saw gin dominated the industry on the domestication and development of the cotton for Upland cotton (and still does), whereas plant and the utilization of its fiber. Archaeological double-roller gin use continued for Sea Island artifacts proving the use of cotton fiber date from the cotton. In 1840, Fones McCarthy developed a Neolithic period (approximately 6000 B.C.) and were reciprocating-knife roller gin. The saw gin had found in what is now known as Pakistan (Giband et a significantly higher ginning capacity than the al., 2010). Other ancient textiles have also been found McCarthy gin, so it was used with Upland cot- in Mexico, Peru, and the Indus Valley that today lies ton and the McCarthy roller gin was used with in Pakistan and northern India. Of the more than 50 Sea Island cotton to preserve the long-staple species of the genus Gossypium, there are four spe- cotton’s quality. Sea Island production ceased cies that produce spinnable fibers of interest to the in 1923 because of the boll weevil, but Pima textile industry. Two species are from the Old World, (ELS) cotton had developed by this time in the G. arboreum L. and G. herbaceum L., and two species Southwest, so roller gin use continued. In 1963, a are from the New World, G. hirsutum L. and G. bar- rotary-knife roller gin was developed that ginned badense L. It is these four species that are commonly at five times the rate of a reciprocating-knife gin. referred to when speaking of the world’s cotton indus- A high-speed roller gin was developed in 2005 try. The varieties developed from the two Old World with a ginning capacity, on a per-width basis, species and the G. hirsutum New World species have comparable to modern-day saw gins. fuzzy seed coats when the useable fibers are removed (ginned) and are commercially known as short-staple, green seed, or Upland cottons (Lakwete, 2003). The G. barbadense extra-long staple (ELS) varieties have S.E. Hughs, C.B. Armijo*, and D.P. Whitelock, USDA-ARS, a naked or black seed after useable fibers are ginned Southwestern Cotton Ginning Research Laboratory, P.O. Box and are commercially known as Pima or American- 578, Mesilla Park, NM 88047; G.A. Holt, USDA-ARS, Cotton Egyptian cottons. (Sea Island cottons are also from Production & Processing Research Unit, 1604 E. FM 1294, the G. barbadense species but are not widely grown Lubbock, TX 79403; and T.D. Valco, USDA-ARS Jamie commercially.) A characteristic of Upland cotton is Whitten Delta States Research Center, Cotton Ginning Research Unit, 111 Experiment Station Road , Stoneville, MS 38776. that the strength of fiber attachment to the seed is *Corresponding author: [email protected] significantly greater than that of Pima cotton (Lyengar, HUGHS ET AL.: DEVELOPMENT OF THE COTTON GIN 35 1954). This strength of attachment difference between Pima and Upland varieties has had a dramatic impact on the development of the cotton gin. The first cotton gin existed by at least the fifth century A.D. and likely existed long before that but would be difficult to identify by archeologists as a gin due to its construction (Lakwete, 2003). This first gin existed in both the Old and the New worlds and was known as a single-roller gin. It consisted of two sepa- rate parts: a small roller approximately 30-cm (12-in) long and no more than 1.6 cm (0.625 in) in diameter (to keep from crushing seeds), and a separate flat base approximately 13-cm (5-in) wide and 20- to 25-cm Figure 1. Churka gin and operator (Anonymous, copyright (8–10-in) long. The roller was made from some type unknown). of metal or hard wood and the base was a flat stone or The first recorded beginnings of modern cot- piece of wood. The ginner grasped both ends of the ton production in the New World began with the roller and rolled it over seed cotton lying on the base Spanish experimental planting of cotton in Florida to pinch the seed apart from the lint much like a baker in 1556 and the settling of the Virginia Colony in using a rolling pin to roll out dough. Skill, as well as North America by the British in 1607. The Virginia strength, was required to continually remove the seed colonists probably received cottonseed from the from the fiber without crushing the seed (Bennett, British East India Company (probably the Old World 1960; Hughs and Holt, 2015). This type of cotton gin species Gossypium arboretum or G. herbaceum) be- has persisted to the modern day for certain traditional fore departing for the voyage to America (Lakwete, and ceremonial uses. (The authors watched a woman 2003; May and Lege, 1999; Smith et al., 1999). in Mali, West Africa, in 2007 use a single-roller gin Cotton production slowly spread from Virginia to to gin a fuzzy-seeded variety of cotton.) other colonies and was grown mainly for domestic The next type of gin developed is generally called consumption until approximately 1770. At this time the churka gin. It is not known when this gin was first American colonists started exporting larger amounts developed but it has existed for centuries in various of ginned Upland cotton fiber to Great Britain. It was forms in China, India, Southeast Asia, and the Middle thought, until recently, that all Upland cotton ginned East (Bennett, 1960; Lakwete, 2003). This gin in its prior to Eli Whitney patenting a cotton gin in 1794 various forms consisted of two small-diameter rollers was ginned by hand but such was not the case. Along that rotated simultaneously in opposite directions and with the cottonseed brought from the British East is called a double-roller gin (Fig. 1). The rollers were India Company, the colonists probably brought some roughly 30-cm (12-in) long, made of some combina- form of the churka or double-roller gin to separate tion of wood or metal, and powered by either one the cotton fiber from the seed (Lakwete, 2003). or two hand cranks. The two rollers were wedged The early history of ginning machines in the together by the ginner into a vertical frame and were American colonies is not clear, but there is enough counter rotated. As the rollers turned, they pulled the documented evidence to indicate that churka-type cotton fibers between them while pinching the seed double-roller gins were used on the North American off the fiber tuft. The seed could not pass through the mainland by 1750 and probably before (Lakwete, tightly wedged rotating rollers and so dropped away 2003). Variations and improvements of the churka as the fiber passed between the two rollers. This action that were either human, water, or animal powered effectively separated the fiber from the seed (Hughs were the types of gins that were used in North Amer- and Holt, 2015). The churka gin had an average fiber ica up until and beyond the date of Eli Whitney filing turnout of 2.3 kg (5 lb) of fiber per day, which was his patent for a new ginning principle in the U.S. five times that of the single-roller gin (Lakwete, 2003). in 1794. The cotton ginned prior to approximately This double-roller gin was harder to make than the 1786 on these double-roller gins were fuzzy-seeded single-roller gin but due to its higher ginning rate was Upland varieties and not the black-seeded Sea Is- probably the dominate method of ginning cotton in land cotton. Sea Island cotton was first planted on medieval cotton production. St. Simons Island off the coast of Georgia in 1785, JOURNAL OF COTTON SCIENCE, Volume 24, Issue 1, 2020 36 long after Upland cotton production was established ity.