How Successful Was Eli Whitney's First Invention Of The Cotton Gin?

“I can make just such ones if I had tools, and I could make tools if I had tools to make them with.” (Fanning 59). This quote illustrates Eli Whitney's great inventive mind. He made this claim while working out a way to produce 10,000 firearms for the US military. First, was Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin. Next, was the creation of interchangeable gun parts. Finally, there was his factory. Eli Whitney’s several great accomplishments during the Industrial Revolution make him worthy of the honor of being placed on United States Currency. Eli Whitney’s first accomplishment was the invention of the cotton gin. The demand for cotton in England was growing, and the southern states could not keep up with the demand. The amount of labor and time required to pick the cotton was causing it to be unprofitable, and southern farmers need another way to

Eli Whitney was visiting a plantation when he first heard of this crisis that the farmers were facing. He consulted with agriculturalists, and after a few months he finalized the idea of what he called a cotton gin. The “gin” in cotton gin is short for engine, so essentially this was a machine that sped up the process of producing cotton. The cotton gin consisted of a long box with a revolving cylinder. It also had saws that separated lint from seed. First, cotton bolls were put in the top of the machine. Then you turn the handle, which runs the cotton through the wire, combing out the seeds. On March 7, 1774, George Washington signed Whitney’s patent for the cotton gin. This invention made him famous overnight. Whitney decided that he would give cotton gins to farms, but he would get a 40% stake in all of the cotton profits. However, due to a patent loophole, many