With this object in view, take for example what is termed "The Double Cotton Opener" with "Hopper Feed Attachment." This machine is shown in Fig. 13. Image: FIG. 13.--"Double opener" with "hopper feed." The Hopper Feed is about the most recent improvement of any magnitude generally adopted in cotton spinning mills. It is an attachment to the initial or feed end of an opener with the object of feeding the cotton more cheaply and effectively than it can be done by hand. It may be said to consist of a large iron feed box, into which the cotton is passed in considerable quantities at one time. At the bottom of the feed box, or hopper, is a travelling apron which carries the cotton forward, so as to be brought within the action of steel pins in an inclined travelling apron or lattice. This latter carries the cotton upwards, and special mechanism is provided in the shape of what is termed an "Evener roller," to prevent too much cotton going forward at once. The cotton that passes over the top of the inclined lattice or apron is stripped off by what is denominated the stripping roller, and is then deposited on the feed apron of the opener, where formerly it was placed by hand. It may be said that one man can feed two machines with Hopper Feeds as against one without them, and in the best makes the work is done more effectively. The feed lattice of the opener carries the cotton along to the feed rollers, which project it forward into the path of the large beater. It is here that the opening and cleaning actions are chiefly performed. The strong knives or spikes of the beater break the cotton into very small portions indeed, and dash it against "cleaning bars" or "grate bars" specially arranged and constructed. Through the interstices of these bars much of the now loosened seed and dirt present in the cotton passes into a suitable receptacle, which is afterward cleaned out at regular intervals. The opened and cleaned cotton is taken away from the action of the beater by an air current produced by a powerful fan. This latter creates a partial vacuum in the beater chamber by blowing the air out of certain air exit trunks specially provided. To supply this partial vacuum afresh, air can only be obtained from the beater chamber, and the air current thus induced, takes the cotton along with it, and deposits it in the form of a sheet upon what are termed "cages" or "sieve cylinders." These are hollow cylinders of iron or zinc perforated with a very large number of small holes through which the air rushes, leaving the cotton, as it were, plastered on the outer surfaces of the cages. It is usual to have a pair of these cages, working one over the other like the pair of rollers in a wringing machine. The cotton now passes between two pairs of small guide rollers, and is fed by the second pair to a second beater, but of very different construction from the first one.