The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 61, July 1957 - April, 1958 Page: 260

                                
Southwestern Historical Quarterly

for any given season, the approximate number of gins in opera-
tion can be determined. From this, it is concluded that in 1850
there were approximately two hundred and forty gins in oper-
ation, and in 186o more than two thousand. This is only an
estimate, but it is a reasonable conjecture.
The early Texas ginning outfits were composed of two parts,
the ginhouse and the press. The ginhouse was a two-story frame
building of rough construction. The lower story, open on three
sides, housed the machinery which powered the gin stand located
on the second floor. The house also contained two storage rooms,
one for seed cotton waiting to be ginned, and one for ginned
cotton waiting to be pressed."
The stands used in the early plantation gins were small affairs
patterned after the Whitney gin. They were composed of a cylin-
der of saws which revolved through a slotted guard called the
breastwork or ribs. The teeth of the saws tore the lint from the
seeds as they passed through the breastwork. Directly behind the
saws was a stiff bristled brush which whisked the lint from the
teeth and into the lint room. These early gins were limited to fifty
saws because they were animal powered.20 At a later date steam
power would increase the number of saws to as many as eighty.
Power for the gin stand originated with two teams of horses
or a yoke of oxen harnessed to two poles or shafts attached to the
base of a ten-foot diameter escapement wheel, or drive wheel.
This wheel operated on a horizontal plane and transferred power
with increased speed to a seven and a half foot vertical wheel by
means of a bevel gear. The vertical wheel extended through the
floor into the second story of the ginhouse, and a belt communi-
cated power from the wheel to the shaft of the gin saws.21
Water and tread wheels also furnished motive power for some
of the early Texas gins. The tread wheel was constructed with a
solid floor and placed on an inclined plane. It was set in motion
by the weight of a horse or an ox treading continuously in one
9The Tenth Census of the United States (Washington, 1880), II, Manufac-
tures, 944-945; Tarlton, History of Cotton Industry in Texas, 1820o-1850 (M.A.
thesis, University of Texas, 1923), 58-59.
20Algernon L. Smith, Continental Gin Company and Its Fifty-Two Years of
Service, 1900oo-952 (Birmingham, 1952), 5-6.
21Alfred M. Pendleton and Edward H. Bush, "Old Gin," Acco Press (January,
1955), 5.

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