Inventions

Eli Whitney

     Eli Whitney was born in Westbiri, Massachusetts on December 8, 1765. He lived until 1825. He was most famous for his invention of the cotton gin in 1793, only a year after he graduated from Yale College. The cotton gin revolutionized the clothing industry because farmers could now produce mass quantities of cotton faster, and get it processed quicker. The cotton gin is a simple drum that is turned by a hand crank. Inside the drum are hooks that pull the cotton away from the seed as the drum is cranked.

     Another invention of his that is not as well known is his interchangeable parts on muskets and pistols. He made parts that could be put into any musket or pistol made by Winchester or Colt. In 1801 he went to President Thomas Jefferson with his new idea of interchangable parts. He took parts out of 10 muskets and switched them around through all 10. The government then decided that machine-made muskets were better quality than hand-made or imported. The government then gave him a grant to make muskets for the United States military. His interchangeable parts became a leading industry after the War of 1812.  

Bibliogrophy

Evens , Harold. They Made America. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2004.

Ellis, Elisabeth G., ed. World History Connections to Today. Needham, MA: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005.

Bellis, Mary. "The Cotton Gin and Eli Whitney." About.com. 2007. The New York Times. 13 Nov. 2007 <http://inventors.about.com/od/cstarinventions/a/cotton_gin.htm>.

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