Re: cotton, educate me

Posted by jackinok on October 30, 2012 at 11:02:13 from (162.58.82.136):

In Reply to: cotton, educate me posted by ericlb on October 30, 2012 at 06:12:24:

a little about the gin building itself , as jmore said it was ran most often by a engine of some brand setting outside and far from the gin.a series of shafts and belts ran the length of the gin and ran the actuall cotton gins themselves. actually operating the gins was considered by many to be the most dangerous work you could do.and the guys who were good at it were considered highly trained, highly skilled,and highly paid workers. the gin house by its very nature was(is) a highly dangerous place and there was a jillion ways you could get injured or worse. first was the belts,mostly open with no guards.women were NEVER allowed inside a gin for any reason while it was running,long hair and belts was simply too dangerous. a belt could grab your hair and literally rip your scalp and often your whole face skin off. the gin was always kept dark and with the dust and lint visibility was often just a few feet or less. it was kept dark simply so operators could watch for hot spots. cotton in a atmosphere lacking oxygen smolders ,it looks like little electric currents running up the fibers.a hot bearing or a worn/loose chain could get hot enough to make it burn,so the machines needed constant tending. Guys would crawl around these massive running machines,greasing and oiling them, checking for hot spots and generally servicing them while in operation. Once cotton smolders it makes a thing called char cloth,once in that state any spark and a little air would make instant fire,and in fact thats very often the basis of making fire with a flint and steel. dust and lint was of course highly explosive also. workers back then rarely had any breating protection except a rag tied around their nose and mouth.lint would coat their lungs ,and few lived very long.A man basically had to be familiar enough with his machine to service it while running,in the dark and while blind. needless to say accidents were common,and very often fatal. fires also were a constant concern and many a gin burnt.fire fighting quite often meant pulling smoldering cotton out of a gin into the air where it would immediatly burst into flame.occasionaly during the winter when gin was shut down,school kids would be allowed to walk through the gin.they always made it a point to show the kids the inside of one with its fingers close together and graphicly describe whats left when a person falls in the machine and runs through there. needless to say we didnt play around the gin.LOL

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