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Eli Whitney Invents the Cotton Gin
W HEN we read about the millions of bales of white cotton raised in the South every year, it is hard to believe that cotton itself was considered only a garden plant until after the Revolution. A plantation of thirty acres of cotton near Savannah yielded what was then a very large crop. Just after the war with Great Britain, eight bags of cotton were shipped to England, and were seized by the Custom House officials, on the ground that so much cotton could not be raised in the United States.
The cotton which grows in the uplands of the South is
known as short staple cotton, and its lint adheres very
closely to the seed. At first this lint had to be
picked off by hand, which was a slow process. A man and
his
family could hardly clean more than eight or ten pounds
a day. In case of a large crop, there were not hands
enough to separate the lint from the seed. Therefore,
cotton was not profitable, and, in consequence, not
much
of it was raised. In the year 1791, only three hundred
and
In 1792, a young man, named Eli Whitney, was living in
Georgia, at the home of
Whitney had always shown a certain skill in making
useful articles, and in mending broken things. Nothing
was
needed around the Greene house or farm that Whitney
could not make; nothing that he could not fix.
One day some visitors expressed their regret that it was such a hard matter to clean the upland cotton; they said it was a pity there was not a machine for that purpose.
Mrs. Greene replied, "There is a young man here who can
make anything. His name is
Whitney was sent for, and listened to stories of the
trouble the Southern farmers were having with the
cotton
seed. He had never seen any cotton
up to that time, but he cheerfully undertook to work up
some scheme. He watched the
Whitney toiled for several months on his invention, and
at last had ready for its trial test his cotton
engine, or Mrs. Greene and another friend were the only ones allowed to see Whitney's first gin. They were so delighted when they witnessed how fast this little hand-turning machine could clean the seed, that they could not keep the secret. Others soon heard of it, and one night Whitney's shop was broken open, and his model machine was stolen and carried away. This was a great blow to Whitney, for, before he could make a new one, and get it patented, other machines, based on his invention, were in operation. In after years, this gave him a great deal of trouble, and, in fact, kept him from making a fortune out of his gin.
A patent was secured for the Whitney
At any rate, the world knows that Whitney invented the
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