Apparatus—
The sorter (see
illustration)
Duplex Cotton Fiber Sorter
consists of two banks of combs rigidly mounted side by side on a common base. Each bank of combs consists of at least 12 individual combs spaced 3.2 mm apart, one behind the other, and mounted in grooves so that as they are approached during the fractionating process and no longer needed, they may be dropped below the working plane. Each individual comb has a single row of accurately aligned and sharply pointed teeth, 12 mm long, consisting of needles 0.38 mm in diameter. The teeth are spaced 62 to 25 mm over an extent of approximately 50 mm.
Accessory equipment consists of fiber-sorter forceps, fiber-depressing grid, fiber-depressing smooth plate, and velvet-covered plates. The sorter forceps consist of two brass pieces approximately 75 mm long, hinged on one end and slightly curved to present a beaked aspect at the gripping end for gripping the protruding fibers close to the surfaces of the combs. Usually, one of the gripping edges has a leather or other fibrous padding. The gripping edge is approximately 19 mm wide.
The fiber-depressing grid consists of a series of brass rods spaced 3.2 mm apart so that they may be placed between the combs to press the fibers down between the teeth. The fiber-depressing smooth plate consists of a polished brass plate approximately 25 × 50 mm, with a knob or handle on the upper surface whereby the plate may be smoothed over the fibers as they are laid on the velvet surface of the array plates. The velvet-covered plates, upon which the fibers may be arrayed, are aluminum sheets approximately 100 mm × 225 mm × 2.4 mm thick, covered on both sides with high-grade velvet, preferably black.
Selection of Cotton—
After unrolling the cotton, prepare a representative laboratory test specimen by taking from a package containing from 8 to 16 ounces, 32 pinches (about 75 mg each) well distributed throughout the bulk of the lap, 16 representative pinches being taken from each longitudinal half of the lap. Avoid the cut ends of the lap, and take particular care to secure portions throughout the thickness of the lap. To avoid biased selection of long or short fibers, remove all fibers of the group pinched and do not allow them to slip from between the fingers.
From packages of not more than 4 ounces in weight, take 8 pinches, and from packages weighing more than 4 ounces and not more than 8 ounces, take 16 pinches, all well distributed.
Mix the pinches in pairs promiscuously, and combine each pair by gently drawing and lapping them in the fingers. Then divide each combined pair by splitting longitudinally into two approximately equal parts and utilize one part in the further mixing. (The other part may be discarded or reserved for any further tests or checks.)
Repeat the process described in the preceding paragraph with the successive halves of the bifurcated series until only 1 pinch, the final composite test portion, results. Gently parallel and straighten the fibers of the final composite test portion by drawing and lapping them in the fingers. Take care to retain all of the fibers, including as far as possible those of the neps (specks of entangled fibers) and naps (matted masses of fibers), discarding only motes (immature seed fragments with fibers) and nonfiber foreign material such as stem, leaf, and fragments of seedcoats.
From the final composite portion described in the preceding paragraph, separate longitudinally a test portion of 75 ± 2 mg, accurately weighed. Retain the residue for any check test necessary.
Procedure—
With the fiber-depressing grid carefully insert the weighed test portion into one bank of combs of the cotton sorter, so that it extends across the combs at approximately right angles.
With the sorter forceps, grip by the free ends a small portion of the fibers extending through the teeth of the comb nearest to the operator; gently and smoothly draw them forward out of the combs, and transfer them to the tips of the teeth in the second bank of combs, laying them parallel to themselves, straight, and approximately at right angles to the faces of the combs, releasing the gripped ends as near to the face of the front comb as possible. With the depressor grid carefully press the transferred fibers down into the teeth of the combs. Continue the operation until all of the fibers are transferred to the second bank of combs. During this transfer of the fibers, drop the combs of the first bank in succession when and as all of the protruding fibers have been removed.
Turn the machine through 180
, and transfer the cotton fibers back to the
first bank of combs in the manner described in the preceding paragraph.
Take great care in evening up the ends of the fibers during both of the above transfers, arranging them as closely as possible to the front surface of the proximal comb. Such evening out of the ends of the protruding fibers may involve drawing out straggling fibers from both the front and rear aspects of the banks of combs, and re-depositing them into and over the main bundle in the combs.
Turn the machine again through 180
. Drop successive combs if necessary to expose the ends of the longest fibers. It may be necessary to re-deposit some straggling fibers. With the forceps withdraw the few most protuberant fibers. In this way continue to withdraw successively the remaining protuberant fibers back to the front face of the proximal comb. Drop this comb and repeat the series of operations in the same manner until all of the fibers have been drawn out. In order not to disturb seriously the portion being tested, and thereby vitiate the length fractionation into length groups, make several pulls (as many as 8 to 10) between each pair of combs.
Lay the pulls on the velvet-covered plates alongside each other, as straight as possible, with the ends as clearly defined as possible, and with the distal ends arranged in a straight line, pressing them down gently and smoothly with the fiber-depressing smooth plate before releasing the pull from the forceps. Employ not fewer than 50 and not more than 100 pulls to fractionate the test portion.
Group together all of the fibers measuring 12.5 mm (about 1/2 inch) or more in length, and weigh the group to the nearest 0.3 mg. In the same manner, group together all fibers 6.25 mm (about 1/4 inch) or less in length, and weigh in the same manner. Finally, group the remaining fibers of intermediate lengths together and weigh. The sum of the three weights does not differ from the initial weight of the test portion by more than 3 mg. Divide the weight of each of the first two groups by the weight of the test portion to obtain the percentage by weight of fiber in the two ranges of length.
691
COTTON
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