Loading Cotton, 19th Century

[AndyHall]

This unidentified image, from the New York Public Library, is probably from the postwar period but is nonetheless a good example of a wharf scene that might have been taken at any large port in the South from the mid-19th century on. These bales are more compact than in earlier periods, and so probably reflect the use of steam cotton presses. It's also one of the more effective stereoviews I've seen lately.

 

[Drew]

Today's cotton bails are pretty huge. It'd be hard to load one by hand, let alone run off with one.

 

[Allie]

The stereoscope is awesome! I wonder how that one was done - it doesn't look like true 3d as with most I've seen but more like different things are cut out and put on different levels.

 

[AndyHall]

The stereoscope is awesome! I wonder how that one was done - it doesn't look like true 3d as with most I've seen but more like different things are cut out and put on different levels.

It's one of the better quality ones I've seen recently (in terms of the 3D effect). They were shot with double-lens cameras, with the lenses about the same distance apart as one's eyes. Quite a few stereo cards were actually not shot with stereo cameras, and used two identical prints of the same image -- those don't work in 3D, but you have to put them in a viewer to figure that out. I use free software called StereoPhoto Maker to combined images as red/cyan images, or "blinky" GIFs.

Here is a great red/cyan image made by Flickr user Paul Taylor from an original at the LoC of a funeral service held in honor of Abarham Lincvoln in April 1865, complete with hearse and empty casket:

 

[Story]

The whole 'cotton clad' armor trick, along with loading-out blockade runners, forced me to look up 'cotton press'.

 

[James B White]

There used to be a working cotton press similar to that bottom one, where the mule goes 'round, at a living history place near Columbus, Georgia--but not too near, way out in the country. They've up and moved everything closer to the city of Columbus to see if they could get more traffic/visitors/money, and I've not been down there since. Would love to know if it's surviving.

I tried to look up the size of a cotton bale a while ago, to see exactly what people were talking about when they said they made so many bales per acre, and I was surprised how variable it was. If there was a legal definition of what one bale weighed, I couldn't find it.

Third paragraph, right hand side, 1853: 450 lbs: https://books.google.com/books?id=YKIEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA117
Left hand column, premium winners, 1853: 500 lbs. https://books.google.com/books?id=YKIEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA286
Right hand column, partway down, 1847: 400 lbs. https://books.google.com/books?id=MqIKAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA69
About 2/3 way down the page, 1838: 400 lbs. https://books.google.com/books?id=5aBH8hwd2-8C&pg=PA197
About 2/3 way down the page, 1851: 400 lbs. https://books.google.com/books?id=oFFJAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA569

So in that short list, 400 pounds dominates, but there's also 450 pounds and 500 pounds, quite a difference.

There just seemed to be no rhyme or reason, and it apparently depended on the size of the local press. The cotton itself was surely sold in pounds, which made more sense, because a bale could be made worth more or less by baling tighter or looser. But I was surprised to see how often bales were talked about as a system of measurement: "my overseer got a bale to the acre this year," "the land is so rich it brings 2 bales to the acre," etc., which really meant nothing.

 

[roberts]

IIRC, the standard for a bale of cotton changed over time but was not based upon weight but on dimensions. This was to accomodate shippers and warehouses. I believe that 27" X 54" was a standard. As you note cotton was sold by the pound so the weight of the bale mattered most. As compression technology improved, the weight of a bale got heavier over time until it approached 500#. When a cotton farmer was talking about bales per acre he was using a imprecise measure of production but production had so many variables already in year to year....planting time, rainfall, soil conditions, pests, etc. It is kinda like the fish that got away....there were some theory and assumptions.

 

[AndyHall]

Cotton was indeed sold by the pound, and each bale was periodically weighed as it passed from farmer to compress to shipper(s) to buyers to the mills that spun it into fiber. The cotton was also graded, based on the length of the individual cotton fibres, with small samples being removed from each bale for examination and evaluation. The exact weight of any individual bale was not very important, whether it was 400, 450, or 500 pounds.

I love this painting by Degas, "A Cotton Office in New Orleans" (1873), that shows multiple aspects of the trade going on all at once:

Cotton prices swung wildly during the war, going over $1 per pound in New Orleans for a time in 1864. (Good upland cotton is currently running around 70 cents/pound today, in late 2016.) Several U.S. Navy officers serving with the West Gulf Blockading Squadron made bank from prize money as a result.

 

[Podad]

A little cotton trivia from my family:

My Dad said the his Grandpa always stored several bales of cotton so he could sell them at times of peak value. The fall of 1929 was one such time. He had several bales on hand that dropped by about 75% in value almost overnight upon the stock market crash. He ended up selling the cotton for about 5 cents a pound.

 

[Podad]

Today's cotton bails are pretty huge. It'd be hard to load one by hand, let alone run off with one.

View attachment 117360

Drew,

The image you show is actually a package made to facilitate moving cotton from the field to the gin. Until recent years large cage type trailers were the norm for transporting picked cotton.

 

[James B White]

Here's the cotton press as it used to be, as I remember it, in Georgia. The gin was located in that building in the distance.

 

[AndyHall]

This is an old steam cotton press that was part of a large warehouse complex on Broadway in Galveston, near the west end of town. There were two like this, that probably dated to the 1920s or before. They were revealed a few years ago when the warehouses were demolished to make room for a new courthouse/county jail/sheriff and police department complex. They've since been dismantled and scrapped, but they were massive pieces of machinery. They were probably 30 feet tall, at least.

 

[DaveBrt]

There used to be a working cotton press similar to that bottom one, where the mule goes 'round, at a living history place near Columbus, Georgia--but not too near, way out in the country. They've up and moved everything closer to the city of Columbus to see if they could get more traffic/visitors/money, and I've not been down there since. Would love to know if it's surviving.

I tried to look up the size of a cotton bale a while ago, to see exactly what people were talking about when they said they made so many bales per acre, and I was surprised how variable it was. If there was a legal definition of what one bale weighed, I couldn't find it.

Third paragraph, right hand side, 1853: 450 lbs: https://books.google.com/books?id=YKIEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA117
Left hand column, premium winners, 1853: 500 lbs. https://books.google.com/books?id=YKIEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA286
Right hand column, partway down, 1847: 400 lbs. https://books.google.com/books?id=MqIKAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA69
About 2/3 way down the page, 1838: 400 lbs. https://books.google.com/books?id=5aBH8hwd2-8C&pg=PA197
About 2/3 way down the page, 1851: 400 lbs. https://books.google.com/books?id=oFFJAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA569

So in that short list, 400 pounds dominates, but there's also 450 pounds and 500 pounds, quite a difference.

There just seemed to be no rhyme or reason, and it apparently depended on the size of the local press. The cotton itself was surely sold in pounds, which made more sense, because a bale could be made worth more or less by baling tighter or looser. But I was surprised to see how often bales were talked about as a system of measurement: "my overseer got a bale to the acre this year," "the land is so rich it brings 2 bales to the acre," etc., which really meant nothing.

I have seen many dozen documents with number of bales and total weight. These divide out to 400 to 500 # per bale, with a heavy majority being about 440 # per bale. These are all wartime figures, tho the bales may have been pressed pre-war.

 

[AndyHall]

Cotton press at Galveston, early 1870s. The workers at center are placing bands or straps around the pressed bale so that when the pressure is released, the cotton will be held in place. The man at left has another bale, pressed originally at a gin in the country, waiting to be pressed again to a more compact size.

An 1871 birds-eye view of Galveston, showing (upper) cotton warehouses and storage yards, with chimneys for the steam plants for the presses.

 

[DaveBrt]

As Government cotton was in transit from storage to port, its package condition was inspected each time it was removed from the cars and again as it was reloaded onto car or ship. The transportation quartermasters and agents were charged to repack any bales that were in need of it (this usually did not require a press, just rope and ties).

October 30/63, Government Agent Sexias, in Wilmington, was calling for 1500 bales per week to feed the runners. He was insisting that it be shipped from source to Wilmington without breaking bulk (unloading and reloading from one train to another). This was best handled by through trains from Atlanta or Augusta to Wilmington and RR Bureau head QM Sims was able to provide many of these, though how completely he met Sexian's requirements is a matter I have not located.

 

[Drew]

Drew,

The image you show is actually a package made to facilitate moving cotton from the field to the gin. Until recent years large cage type trailers were the norm for transporting picked cotton.

Thanks, Podad. I just looked up standard bales - 500 pounds, still a lot for a person or persons to move by hand. That's almost like moving a piano.

http://www.cotton.org/tech/bale/bale-description.cfm

 

[DixieRifles]

I lived in a Mississippi Delta town---Minter City--- that was the home of a Cotton Seed Oil Mill. Every kid in the town learned about the processing of cotton and especially of the cotton seed. Everyone had done a science project related to this.
During my summer in college, I worked at the Oil Mill. One job involved moving 500-lb cotton bales of cotton seed lint around the warehouse and into RR cars. I was only the assistant fork lift operator and I'm glad I didn't have to lift those above my head even if it was with hydraulic power.

I was looking for an old dolly used to move those bales. I think I tried moving one of these bales like this but I'm sure I needed help.

 

[Story]

An 1871 birds-eye view of Galveston, showing (upper) cotton warehouses and storage yards, with chimneys for the steam plants for the presses.

View attachment 117530

Look close at the smallest wharf on Strand, the house looks like it's built on top of a hulk.

 

[Yankeedave]

Neat thread fellows. Pun intended.

 

[Story]

October 30/63, Government Agent Sexias, in Wilmington, was calling for 1500 bales per week to feed the runners. He was insisting that it be shipped from source to Wilmington without breaking bulk (unloading and reloading from one train to another).

Source for that?