Hand Stapling Method is one of the fiber lengths tests. This method is the Technician and the Graders method. The method of stapling is as follows:
Cotton tuft of ¼ ounce is picked and placed between the thumb and forefinger of each hand with the thumb placed together. The fingers being turned in towards the palms of the hands, and the middle joints of the second, third and fourth fingers of each hand touching the corresponding joints of the fingers of the other hand to give a good leverage for breaking the cotton.
Cotton is pulled slowly with about the same leverage of each hand on the joints of the fingers to separate the tuft of cotton into two parts.
The cotton remaining the right hand is discarded.
The end of the tuft of cotton retained in the left hand is grasped with the thumb and forefinger of the right hand. The point of pressure on the cotton in the left hand is just below the joint of the thumb and at the nail joint of the forefinger.
With the right hand a layer of fibers from the cotton held in the left hand is drawn. The layer so drawn is retained in the right hand. This operation is repeated four or five times, placing each successive layer directly over the fibers previously drawn. Care must be taken to arrange the ends of all the layers even which each other between the thumb and forefinger of the right hand.
Then discard the cotton in the left hand. The fibers obtained between the thumb and forefinger of the right hand are smoothened by with the thumb and forefinger of the left hand, to get a well straightened tuft about ½ inch wide. This is laid on a flat horizontal surface with a black background.
The extreme tips of the tuft represent the presence of the longer fibers. The shorter fibers will lie in the body of the tuft.
The distance between the two well defined edges on the tuft. Where the density of the tuft charges most rapidly is measured. This is called the staple length of cotton.
The above method of sampling is recommended by the US department of agriculture. The staple length determined as above may be given to the nearest sixteenth of an inch.