Aaron Bendel, age 10, of Orlando, Fla., for his question:

WHO INVENTED THE COTTON GIN?

The cotton gin is a wonderful machine that is used to separate the fibers of raw cotton from the seeds that it contains. An American inventor by the name of Eli Whitney came up with the right formula in 1793.

Whitney's gin was also called the saw gin. Before his invention came along, all of the seeds had to be removed from cotton by hand    one seed at a time.

The gin had a cylinder on which a number of sawlike teeth were mounted. Then as the cylinder revolved, the teeth would pass through the ribs of a fixed comb. As the cotton was put into the gin, the teeth grabbed the cotton fibers and pulled them through the comb, leaving the seeds in the gin.

This same system, with almost no changes, is still used in modern automatic saw gins that are used to clean most of the American cotton crop.

Premium grades of cotton, such as Sea Island, Egyptian and pima varieties, go through a slower roller gin.