As the American spoke, the Steam Engine behind him had already heated the boiler, setting the Cotton Gin slowly turning.
Two technicians poured huge bundles of seed cotton—the freshly picked cotton bolls—into the feed chute. Inside the machine were two rows of rapidly spinning, comb-like metal teeth that hooked the cotton fibers and pulled them through a narrow mesh gap into the drying chamber at the rear.
Because cotton seeds were relatively large, most were filtered out by the comb teeth. The few that slipped through could not pass the mesh screen either, so what entered the drying chamber was almost pure cotton fiber.
The hot air discharged by the Steam Engine was directed into the drying chamber, "blowing" the cotton dry.
When the technicians opened the drying chamber, they took out clumps of ginned cotton.
The entire process took less than ten minutes!
Count Elerach was left gaping at the efficient production process. Cotton seeds were the mortal enemy of spinning; if they had to be removed by hand, processing so much cotton would require seventy or eighty people.
He could not help but loudly praise Doriane, "This machine is incredible. It's practically magic."
His heavily Swiss-accented German immediately drew a disdainful sidelong glance from an Italian beside him.
The latter muttered in French to his companion, "Making such a fuss over even this thing—what a country bumpkin..."
Count Elerach was a nobleman after all and understood some French. His face immediately reddened, and just as he was about to protest, he heard another Italian say, "Yes, they merely stole Baron Whitney's patent."
"Apparently, Baron Whitney has already invented a new Cotton Gin that uses something called Centrifugal Separation Technology. It is more than twice as efficient as this machine, and the cotton it produces can go directly into