Gin-spinner speeded up thread-making

By Norris Dearmon
For the Kannapolis Citizen
In the very early beginnings of textiles, everything was made by hand.
I remember seeing a pair of hand carding blocks my grandmother had. Her mother had used the blocks in making cloth for many years. The blocks were about 8 or 10 inches long, about 4 inches wide, with handles on each block. On the blocks were rows of small, stiff wires bent on the end to create a kind of comb. By placing cotton or wool on the blocks and pulling it along the two blocks, a person could comb the strands into straight lengths. By removing the material from the blocks, a short roll of cotton or wool yarn were produced. The larger rolls were then run through a spinning wheel to produce thread.
Eventually, inventors decided the process was too time-consuming and decided to find a better way. The gin-spinner was invented.
Some were called by different names, but the principle was the same. A round cylinder was made containing many of the small, stiff wires bent on the end, similar to the ones on the hand blocks. The seeded blocks of cotton or wool were fed into the cylinder in some fashion and carded off by other rollers to go through the spinning part of the machine, thus creating a thread.
Electricity was not available for many years, so the machines used human power, by means of a crank.
Pictured are two of such machines. One shows H.A. Grady adjusting a machine that is now stored in the Cannon Village Visitors Center. According to the former Cannon News, Grady did most of the work of restoring the machine. It is believed to have been made between 1820 and 1840 and used in Cabarrus and Rowan counties. It was acquired by Cannon Mills in 1974 from Minnie Lea Bost Barrier of Rockwell, where it was stored for many years. The Cannon research and development department restored the machine to operating condition.
The second machine is now in the possession of M.D. Ford. It works on the same principle as the other machine. Drums, belts, pulleys and a crank are used to process blocks of seeded cotton. Both machines are unusual and historical.
The Division of Textiles of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., has provided the following information about its Gin-Spinner, manufactured by the J & T Pearce Co. of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Curator Grace R. Cooper wrote:
“An 1845 account of this factory stated that 2,500 of the machines had been sold in the South. The price was $130 each. The gin-spinners were also produced on a smaller scale in various places in the South. There are references to their manufacture in Greensboro, in Raleigh and in Tennessee, where they originated. Although there are variations, most of these small machines are more or less alike.
“They are based on the J. McBride (Nashville, Tennessee) patent of 1805 for a machine to ‘gin, card, and spin cotton.’ Another Nashville man, William Bryant, patented improvements on the McBride machine on September 30, 1823. From Tennessee the so-called ‘Spinsters’ spread to Alabama, Louisiana and the Carolinas. They were also called ‘Spinginny,’ ‘Spinning Jenny,’ and ‘Columbian Spinster.’ “
The textile industry has come a long way since those days.
Norris Dearmon is a local historian and member of the Kannapolis History Associates. He is a volunteer in the Hinson History Room of the Kannapolis Branch of the Cabarrus County Library.