The Marvelous Eli Whitney
Have you ever wondered what material was used to make the clothing you are wearing? Well, a lot of it is cotton. Cotton is a very profitable plant, but it is very hard to take the seeds out of the cotton fibers. So, here came a young man that had just graduated college and devised a machine to take the seeds out of the cotton fibers; the machine was called the “cotton gin.” His machine could help a farmer produce up to fifty pounds a day versus only one pound a day. Eli Whitney changed the world by inventing the cotton gin, and creating interchangeable parts for the cotton gin and many other devices, including the muskets which helped introduce mass production. Eli Whitney was born on December 8th, 1765 in Westboro,
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He headed down to Georgia on a boat. While on the boat he met Catherine Greene, she was a widow of a Revolutionary War general. After meeting Greene he refused to take the job as a tutor that he was offered and he accepted to live with her so he could study Law at her house which was known as Mulberry Grove Plantation. Her house was outside of Savannah, Georgia. While living with Greene, Whitney met Greene’s fiance`, Phineas Miller. He was also a Yale Alumni. While living with Greene, Whitney noticed that there was low profit in the cotton business and it was very difficult to take the seeds out of the fibers. That made it difficult for the farmers because “time is money” as a lot of farmers would say. So, during the winter of 1793, Whitney devised a machine called the “cotton gin” at Greene’s house. He was only twenty-seven years old and had a well-developed machine built and was trying to patent it. On October 28th, 1793 he applied to get his cotton gin patented and on March 14th, 1794 it was patented. The purpose of this machine was to take out the seeds from the cotton fibers. “The impact of Whitney’s gin was vast; after its invention, the yield of raw cotton nearly doubled each decade after 1800” (Hargrett n.pag.). His machine made it so much easier for the farmers. The machine could produce up to fifty pounds of raw cotton a day versus a pound a day without the cotton gin. The basics of this …show more content…
After giving up on the cotton gin Whitney got a contract with the government to make muskets. So, in 1798 Whitney built a firearms factory near New Haven, Connecticut. While making muskets for the government he figured out how to make interchangeable parts for muskets. This introduced mass production. He is known as the “father of mass production.” If you made guns or was a known “gunmaker” you were considered a very skilled or crafted person. Making guns was very difficult then and it is still not easy, now. One reason making guns was very difficult is because you had to do everything by hand and another reason is because you had to craft it yourself and getting everything precise was difficult. Making guns was not the cheapest either. At one point he had a contract to make 10,000 “stand of arms” for $134,000. He did accomplish this but, it did take him ten years to fill it. According to the article of “Arms Production at the Whitney Armory”, a “stand of arms” included the musket and its bayonet and ramrod, both of which also had to fit securely and smoothly to the weapon and be durable in use ( n.pag.). Even after Whitney’s death his factory still stayed in business. His factory was in business for ninety years total! Whitney stayed in the musket business all the way up to his death. He was never a wealthy man but, after years of making muskets for the government he ended up being a fairly wealthy man. “In 1817,
Eli Whitney and Cyrus McCormick are two of the most impressive early inventors in United States history. Both inventors had huge impacts on the agricultural field with their respective inventions. Whitney’s cotton gin, which was created in 1793, revolutionized the plantation of the South. Similarly, McCormick’s reaper had the same effect on the North. The reaper had much of the same effect on wheat that the gin had on cotton, allowing wheat field to be picked in a fraction of the time after its use became widespread years after its creation for a neighboring farm in 1831.
The way he saw fit to still help his fellow brother in arms was to make a more effective weapon that would work in all conditions. Along with the testing the Kalashnikov went through before it would get sent to troops. One thing that really caught my attention was he really did not get recognized for his efforts until much later, while the maker of the M16 was recognized almost immediately with little testing done on performance. Really makes you see the difference in culture.
The cotton gin help the slaves separated the cotton from the seeds. They had factories in the North and plantations in the south. The factories allowed for trading with forgeign countries. . A telegraph is how they communicated back then..
The theme of Work, Exchange, and Technology is demonstrated throughout Chapter Fourteen; during the 1700s, many new forms of technology were made such as the steam engine which was created by James Watt. This new technology had a major impact on the Industrial Revolution and was capable of powering factories that are in cities. Farmers also had a huge impact on the Industrial Revolution; John Deere invented the steel plow and Cyrus McCormick invented the mechanical reaper. While these inventions were proven very useful, they also put
If the cotton gin had been invented at an earlier time the slavery wouldn’t happen because they wouldn’t need anyone to do the work, they needed to be done. People or more like slaves were being exploited due to the work they were doing. If the machines, they needed would have been invented at this time there would have not been a problem in looking for people to do any work and overworking them. There’s always different opinions whether positive or negative. The negative opinions were affecting certain people, such as the ones that were put under pressure by doing all the work.
Technology and economic expansion were two very limited factors during the early 1800s. Most of the American people during these times struggled simply to provide for themselves and their families. In fact, families had to utilize raw materials to build their own homes and furniture. Nevertheless, as time progressed technological advances started to be made. Eli Whitney was one of the pioneers to create innovative technological advancements.
The reason why his models are so distinguished is by the innovation and excellence in each piece. Browning brought many changes to the firearms world and developed mechanisms used in other industries. He also became a legend in the United States after the implementation of his rifles in World War II. Collaborating with other gun designers was very important for him, since he could also recognize other points of view and get feedback from their perspective. He always had in mind the teachings of his father and the ones his partners gave him throughout his
With this new invention, a person could yield eight times as much cotton in one day versus the traditional method. It also made the Southern people more dependent on slavery than ever before. As more cotton could be produced in one day the need for slaves grew higher. No longer could the South due
With the start of the Industrial Revolution taking shape in America, a plethora of inventors began to contribute, whether they knew how impactful it would be or not. Massachusetts born Eli Whitney was one such inventor. Eli Whitney was a young student who, after graduated from Yale College in 1793, took a ship to Savannah, Georgia in which he was to take up a tutoring position on a South Carolina plantation. He was to become a private tutor while he concurrently prepared to enter law. While on his journey to Georgia Eli met the widow of General Nathanel Greene, Katherine Greene, in which she invited Eli to visit Mulberry Grove, where she believed that he could be of use in aiding local planters with farming issues.
The cotton gin was invented by Eli Whitney in 1793. Versions of a cotton gin have existed since the first century in which single rollers were used to try to separate the seed from the cotton. Over time, a double roller system was invented. Finally, in 1793, the version invented by Whitney actually used teeth-like projections to remove the seed from the cotton. A belt and pulley system then separated the lint from the seeds.
Following the War of 1812, America entered a period known as the Antebellum Era, meaning "before the Civil War," which lasted from 1815 to 1861. This period was characterized by the Market Revolution, which saw the birth of American capitalism and caused major social and economic change. From the year 1815 to 1850, slavery remained an established institution, economic change in the North East led to industrialization which in turn caused other economic and social changes, and a shift in America's social climate caused the growth of the abolitionist movement. One change that transformed American society was industrialization. Prior to the War of 1812, American society was mostly comprised of yeoman farmers who subsisted through trade and barter,
The seeds, then had to be picked out by hand as well. This process was extremely time consuming. In 1793, a man named Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin. This greatly sped up the process of harvesting the cotton.
Throughout history, people have been inventing things to make their lives easier. That drive has produced huge changes in the American life several times over. In the 1700’s, life in America was very difficult. Transportation infrastructure was lacking, which pushed the delivery of goods to be almost exclusively down rivers. Military technology was roughly unchanged since America began, leaving the country open to attack from other nations.
He built his first mill in 1790 on the Blackstone River in Rhode Island. This was one of the first factories built in the united states. A couple years later he built ‘Slater Mill.’ It was the first american factory to successfully produce cotton yarn with water-powered machines. Although Slater’s factory was the first to successfully produce cotton yarn with water-powered machines, it was difficult.
He gave to England the new know-how knowledge of the spinning frame. He also patented the new know-how knowledge of the cording engine that transformed raw cotton into cotton lap. He created the modern factory system by combining power machinery with semi skilled labour and the raw material cotton to create mass produced cotton in a single building. He became known as the “Father of the Industrial Revolution”.