Michael Anderson, age 8, of Canfield, Ohio, for his question:
WHO WAS ELI WHITNEY?
A cotton gin is a machine used for separating cotton fiber from the seed. The machine actually helped make
cotton the chief crop of the southern part of the United States. Before the cotton gin was invented, it took a person a full day to hand pick the seeds from a pound of cotton fiber. The machine was invented in 1793 by a man named Eli Whitney.
American inventor Eli Whitney has two great claims to fame: He invented the cotton gin that helped make the United States the largest cotton producer in the world, and he also invented a way to manufacture guns that marked the beginning of mass production.
Born in Westborough, Mass., in 1765, Whitney made violins when he was 12 years old. During the Revolutionary War, when he was still a teen ager, he had his own business of making hand wrought nails.
When the war was over, Whitney didn't have enough money to go to college. So he got a job teaching school and earned $7 a month. He entered Yale College when he was 23 and graduated in 1792 when he was 27.
While studying law in Georgia in 1793, Whitney came up with his cotton gin invention. He applied for a patent and then started building the machines. Soon a number of others were making imtiations of Whitney's machine. Long years of court trials followed, but finally Whitney won. The courts declared that he indeed had sole rights to his patent.
In 1798 Whitney built another factory and began to make muskets by a new method. Up to this time all guns had been handmade by skilled craftsmen but Whitney invented tools and machines that made it possible for unskilled workmen to turn out absolutely uniform parts. Whitney became rich and famous as an arms manufacturer. But his very important role as the father of mass production is almost unknown.
Whitney's cotton gin could clean cotton as fast as 50 men working by hand. Shortly after he won his legal fight for the invention, the patent expired. He pleaded for a renewal, but Congress refused to grant it.
Modern cotton gins use the same principle as the first Whitney machine. Harvested cotton is fed through a row of about 70 saws that make from 350 to 500 revolutions a minute. The saws have a 12 inch diameter and are placed about five Bights of an inch apart. The teeth on the saws , pull the cotton from the seeds. Ginning ribs between the saws prevent the seeds from passing through. Brushes or jets of air remove the fiber on the teeth of the saws.