We were driving home one day from Florance and I saw this tiny sign that said Cotton Museum this way. I was on a mission to find some raw cotton so I marked it on my GPS to visit it this week. I was glad we did. I thought it was going to be a boring tour for the kids.Turns out it had a lot of great history and a few activities for the kids. Plus a super cool gift shop. The people who ran it were true southerners. So kind and very informative. So if your ever my way and want to see a cotton museum, I know where to take you.
An antique (modern) cotton gin. This was the newest one that they had.
The Mexican Bowl Weevil that almost took control of killing all the cotton plants rendering SC for 2 years with worthless cotton fields.They figured out how to kill them with arsenic and cotton was back in the game of being South Carolina's biggest crop.
A loom that turned the fine wisps of strands of cotton into fabric. This one could make 6 yards in 1 minute.
One of the ways they made yarn out of cleaned cotton
An antique (modern) cotton gin. This was the newest one that they had.
The Mexican Bowl Weevil that almost took control of killing all the cotton plants rendering SC for 2 years with worthless cotton fields.They figured out how to kill them with arsenic and cotton was back in the game of being South Carolina's biggest crop.
A loom that turned the fine wisps of strands of cotton into fabric. This one could make 6 yards in 1 minute.
One of the ways they made yarn out of cleaned cotton
This is Jennifer Y. and her kids. They were feeling the cotton to see if they could tell the different grades of cotton. There were 10 different grades. I could only tell the difference between 5ish.
A cotton bush
The cotton Gin by Eli Whitney. It wasn't the first cotton gin. There was one invented 3000 years prior. But that one could only do long grains. Eli Whitney invented a cotton gin for short grains,which is what was grown in the U.S. The invention of the Gin greatly reduced the cleaning time of the cotton. Unfortunately that meant for more slavery. More and more fields were planted, so they needed extra people to plant and pick the cotton.
Another version of a cotton gin.
A big bale of cotton
A cotton bush
The cotton Gin by Eli Whitney. It wasn't the first cotton gin. There was one invented 3000 years prior. But that one could only do long grains. Eli Whitney invented a cotton gin for short grains,which is what was grown in the U.S. The invention of the Gin greatly reduced the cleaning time of the cotton. Unfortunately that meant for more slavery. More and more fields were planted, so they needed extra people to plant and pick the cotton.
Another version of a cotton gin.
A big bale of cotton
The weight system that they used to weigh cotton. It was 41 cents a pound of clean cotton. It takes 1400 pounds of raw seeded cotton to make 500 pounds of clean cotton. That's a lot of work.
The kids feeling the difference of fresh picked cotton lint v/s the processed cleaned cotton. I was shocked how big the cotton seeds are and how many there were. There are 6-8 seeds per pod of cotton.
Another loom
The kids feeling the difference of fresh picked cotton lint v/s the processed cleaned cotton. I was shocked how big the cotton seeds are and how many there were. There are 6-8 seeds per pod of cotton.
Another loom
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