three blades; if so, from this beater the cotton is next borne on
an air current to, and between, a second pair of perforated cylinders.
In either event, the final cages (C, C) deliver the cotton to
feed-rollers (D) and they pass it to calender-rollers (F), by which it
is compressed into a sheet, and finally coiled into a lap (G). Various
kinds of openers have been patented, all of which differ in some
important respects; for example, a hopper feed may be substituted for
the trunk or the lattice feed, in which event the cotton from the
mixing room is conveyed mechanically upon lattices, and deposited in a
hopper affixed to an opener. In this hopper a sloping spiked lattice
elevates the cotton to an evening roller, whose office is to sweep
back the surplus supply from the spikes, but allow the requisite
quantity to pass forward to the beater. A regular supply of cotton to
an opener is of great importance, and in order to insure it a table is
often formed by substituting for the lower roller (E) a series of
levers (A, fig. 4) all mounted upon a fulcrum (B), and having their
free arms weighted by wedge-shaped pendents (C), that are separated by
bowls (D). A fluted feed-roller (E) is fixed above this table and the
cotton is led over the lever but beneath the roller. If the cotton is
unequally distributed, thick places will press down the levers and
thin ones will permit them to rise (as at A', E'). The rise of one
pendent may be cancelled by the fall of another, but any balance of
their movements is transmitted to a belt fork which governs a belt
running upon a pair of inverted cones, and by this means the belt is
traversed to and fro to drive the feed-roller (E) at a superior speed
when the supply of cotton is insufficient, and at an inferior speed
when the supply is excessive.

[Illustration: FIG. 5.]

_The Scutcher._--In many respects a scutcher resembles an opener; its
function is to continue the cleaning and form laps of uniform weight
and density for the carding engine. Occasionally the scutcher is the
first cleaning machine, in which event cotton, in a loose fleece, is
spread evenly upon a lattice. But in order to carry the combination of
fibres one stage further, three or four opener laps are generally
placed upon the feeder, so that, as the laps unroll, three or four
sheets of cotton will be superposed, and in this form are passed by
the latti