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Cotton

Accession number: 
1927.0006

Directors of Photography:

Production Years: 
1927

Languages:

Film Properties: 
Length (feet): 
2817 (35mm); 2470 (28mm)
Length (minutes): 
36
Holding Institutions: 

Library and Archives Canada: 35mm, 28mm, VHS, digibeta.
"Film about the making of fabric. The factory shown in the film is not identified but the intertitles mention the brand names Colonial sheets and Magog Fastest Fabrics. The footage shows: the printing and dyeing of cotton; burning the fuzz off fabric; machinery in a factory; drying cloth; finishing cloth; bed sheeting made into bolts of cloth for sale; the Colonial brand logo; Colonial sheets; factory workers sewing sheets; men and women at work in the factory; white goods packed in wooden cases; workers making designs for printing on cloth; printing plates; the printing of cloth; bleaching; cloth printed with the Union Jack coming off a printing press; the steaming and washing of cloth after printing; women workers cutting swatches of cloth and affixing them to sample books for use by the sales department; and a woman modelling cloth."

"Film presenting the processes and scope of the Cotton Industry in Canada, as represented by the extensive establishments operated by the Dominion Textile Company Limited. The film opens with a comparison between the old way of spinning and weaving cloth and the new way; images of an old woman hard at work give way to an enormous factory floor with thousands of spindles and looms at work. The exterior of a textile plant located beside a body of water is shown. Cotton bales arrive from the south and are loaded into a warehouse. They are graded and stapled by inspectors before being taken off the bales in layers and going through a mixing machine. From there, the cotton is sucked through pipes to the Breaker Lapper for cleaning; workers are shown handling large rolls of cotton on the machinery. Next, the cotton goes through carding engines, a comber, and draw frames which twist the strands of cotton into stronger, finer thread. In the Spinning Room, an operator is shown among rows of bobbins, and repairing a broken thread in slow motion. A woman is shown removing bobbins from spindles in both slow motion and real time. This is followed by a detailed explanation and demonstration of cloth weaving; women are seen operating and loading spools of thread; rows of machines in the Weave Room are shown at work. The production of different patterns (Dobby and Jacquard Weave) are shown; women work at the looms and feeding the threads. After this, the cloth goes through many steps of inspection before being folded and shipped off to the finishing plant for bleaching, printing or dyeing. The fuzz is burned off the fabric before it is bleached or dyed; it also goes through steps of washing, ironing and napping depending on its intended use. Rows of women are seen sewing bolts of cloth into sheets which are then packed into cases. The printing and dyeing process is shown in detail: artists determine the design, which is then tranfered to zinc plates and etched onto copper rollers with an acid bath. The rollers apply colour and designs to the cloth on huge printing machines; a Union Jack is shown being printed. The process of mercerizing gives the cloth a final silk-like lustre. Elsewhere, women in the Sample Making Department create booklets for the Selling Department. The stacks of finished cloth are shown in a warehouse, ready for shipment. A shot of a woman modelling printed cloth is superimposed over a cotton bale to demonstrate the great distance travelled in the production of fabric."

Bibliography: 

Peter Morris, Embattled Shadows: A History of Canadian Cinema 1895-1939 (Montreal/Kingston: McGill/Queen's University Press), 225.

Motion Picture Distributors and Exhibitors of Canada, Canadian Motion Pictures 1914-1932 (June 1932), 5.

Peter Morris, Embattled Shadows: A History of Canadian Cinema, 1895-1939, McGill-Queen's University Press, 1978.