History of the Cotton Gin and Its Influence on the United States

In 1793, Eli Whitney invented a machine that helped the history of the United States. He invented the cotton Gin. The Cotton Gin is one of the most famous, and most useful inventions in American History. It made harvesting Cotton much easier and far more efficient, but also had a negative effect by increasing the demands for slaves. This experience led to greater improvements by the 21th century.

“When Eli was a young man, he worked on a Georgian plantation. He notices the trouble the slaves were having picking seed from cotton bolls. In his spare time, he worked on his invention that would allow the slaves to clean more cotton in a shorter amount of time. The Cotton Gin, it was a very simple invention.” (Source Lesson - CottonGin) Now that cotton was easier to clean and farmers were able to grow it easier, cotton became the number cash crop in the south.

The Cotton Gin was meant to be a simple machine that made harvesting cotton easier and fast. Cotton bolls were put the top of the machine. The cotton goes through a cylinder that is spins. Someone turns the handle, which turns the cotton through the wire teeth. “As it spins the teeth pass through small slits in a piece of wood which then separates the cotton from the seeds. The remaining seeds are used to grow more cotton, which is then turned into cottonseed oil.” (Original Invention - Agricultural Evolution.) Inside the cotton there is a row of saw like teeth, which makes it faster for more cotton than by hand. “Whitney’s improved Cotton Gin was able to process around 50 pounds of cotton lint a day, making it an enormous improvement over his earlier inventions.” (WiseGreek-What is the CottonGin) This invention was by far useful, and faster for the productio...

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...the energy using equipment in the gin to determine exactly where energy is being used and how much is required per bale. From this they we can figure out where improvements and savings can be made.” (Energy Efficiency)

The Cotton Gin invented by Eli Whitney is one of the most famous, and most useful inventions in American History. It made harvesting Cotton much easier and far more efficient. It made the US a leader in agriculture, and Boosted he our economy. Although the Cotton Gin was meant to be a simple machine; it had a negative impact on society. By increasing the demands of slaves to operate the machine. Since then, many improvements had been made on these machines, making far more effect by its manual operated. To this day, the modern cotton gin is still looking for new ways to be energy efficient, and researcher/workers have been making great progress.