roller gin (roʻlerjin)

A machine for separating cotton-seeds from cotton-fiber, in the best form of which the separation is effected by leather rollers acting in conjunction with a knife or knives. The rollers are set at a distance from each other too narrow for the pa age of the seeds, while the fiber is forced in and carried through between the rollers. The knife is blunt-edged, and sometimes has a longitudinal motion, its action a isting the separation of the seeds, which drop down behind the rollers while the detached fiber pa es through. Such gins are slower in action than saw-gins, but they injure the fiber le . Compare nib1, 6.