Los Banos Rotary Club History
Speakers Tell Of Cotton Mill Industry

Two executives from the Calif. Cotton Mills, Robert Hamilton, division manager, and Joe Machado, plant superintendent, Tuesday noon presented to members of the Los Banos Rotary Club a brief outline of California's only cotton mill plant.

Hamilton related the company was started in 1863, many years before the first cotton was grown in this state. Previous to 1941, Hamilton said the mill's products were mostly towels, draperies, twine and rope. Today, however, the products are more diversified. Major items are twines and yarns and special cotton threads used in the manufacture of floor coverings.

Surprisingly, Hamilton said the plant uses a very small amount of California cotton, strict low middling. Mostly they use a shorter staple cotton and lower grades salvaged from large eastern cotton mills that specialize in the manufacture of fine cotton fabrics.

Commenting briefly on the oftrepeated comments that additional cotton mills should be opened on the west coast, Hamilton said this unlikely, because of the tremendous investment required and the very low return that would possible on such an investment.

Machado reviewed the many steps required to process the cotton from the raw material into finished product, told how cotton fibers are cleaned, combed and finally twisted into threads and cords, how the cotton warp is dyed to various colors for manufacture of carpets and chenille bed spreads, and of the many other products derived mostly from the materials discarded from the fiber machines.

Machado showed samples of the cotton and finished materials at various stages of manufacture, and showed samples of mops that are manufactured in the plant, including the very popular stick mop that is used in every household. These, he said, are manufactured on a special machine, the only one of its kind in the world.

The speakers were introduced by local Rotarian John B. Machado, a brother of one of the speakers.

December 4, 1953

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