Eli Whitney: Inventor Of The Industrial Revolution

Henry Ford was one of the most important figures in America’s industry. He was born on July 30, 1863 close to Dearborn, Michigan. At 13, his father gave him a pocket watch which he took apart and reassembled. Because living and working on a farm did not satisfy him, Ford left home at the age of 16 and apprenticed a machinist in Detroit. After marrying Clara Ala Bryant in 1888, he was hired as an engineer for the Edison Illuminating company 3 years later and was quickly promoted to chief engineer.

The cotton gin could remove fifty pounds worth of seeds in one day. Whitney patented the cotton gin in 1794, but after only three years Eli and Phineas went out of business because many people were reluctant to pay for the cotton gins services, so it fell victim to piracy by many plantation owners and was improved for their own use. The patent laws had many loopholes and did not result in Whitneys favor. As of 1802 Whitney and Miller got about half of the money (about fifty thousand dollars that they had asked for their patent rights). During the mid nineteenth century America's leading export was cotton but, it ultimately resulted in more slaves as it was cheaper and faster to get cotton; most farmers started growing bigger crops which meant there was a need for more

Whitney and his partner, Miller, did not intend to sell the gins. Rather, like the proprietors of grist and sawmills, they expected to charge farmers for cleaning their cotton – two-fifths of the value, paid in cotton. Resentment at this scheme, the mechanical simplicity of the device and the primitive state of patent law, made infringement inevitable. Whitney and Miller could not build enough gins to meet demand, so gins from other makers found ready sale. Ultimately, patent infringement lawsuits consumed the profits and their cotton gin company went out of business in

Sebastien Karo APUSH B4 Swenson Cotton, Slavery, and the Old South 1 - “King Cotton” The decline and limits of the tobacco, sugar, rice, and long staple cotton forced the region to shift to short staple cotton which was a hardier and coarser strain that grew very successfully in the South. It was harder to remove the seeds, but the cotton gin solved that problem. The demand of cotton was growing rapidly and as a result, ambitious men and women hurried to establish new cotton-growing regions and the production of cotton grew rapidly.

So before the cotton gin was patented some farmers made their own copies of the cotton gin. Some of their copies even worked better than Eli Whitney’s. Since plantation owners took his invention Eli did not see much profit from the cotton gin. Although, this invention changed America’s economy drastically. The cotton gins were made of different sizes.

Tobacco began to decline in value and deplete the land’s monetary worth. The fascination for cotton soared furthermore, fueling the demand for production. The concept of slaves being freed were overcome by slave owner’s avarice need for riches. In chapter 6 of our textbooks it states, “The expansion of the cotton culture led to the removal of the American

After seeing the struggle of removing the seeds, Eli decided that a machine was crucial to increase the production rate and the amount of exports. With the creation of the gin, the bar quickly rose from 1 pound of cotton to 50 pounds of cotton that could be cleaned per day. This allowed more slaves to work in the fields, rather than cleaning cotton, which resulted in the cost of cotton to decrease dramatically. Both the Northern states and Britain benefited from the growth of cotton because they could buy cotton at a cheaper price, expanding trade between them and the South. Before long, “cotton was the [official] “king” in South Carolina” and throughout the whole South (South Carolina Journey 119).

The cotton gin is one of the early centuries’ inventions that changed world history politically, socially, and economically, for good and for worst. It is supposedly said that Eli Whitney’s invention – the cotton gin came into existence after knowing of the cotton planters’ grief of the overwhelming burdening work it was to clean cotton seeds. Having been patented in 1794, the cotton gin increased cotton production form 3000 bales annually in 1790 to 400, 000 bales of cotton annually. During this time between 300 and 1000 tons were produced per slave daily. Upon Louisiana Land purchase in 1830, 4 million bales were produced annually, consequently this made a huge contribution to the national basket.

Disposing of slaves as commodities most of the population in the south gave their slaves the worst treatment possible. Forcing them into picking and planting crops, the most arduous jobs that no white will ever take part off. Conversely, the creation of the cotton gin exponentially increased demands for slaves in the cotton states compared border states. The south was the main producer of cotton for the whole country, furthermore, it not all sold to most of the states in the union but also produced cotton for countries like Britain. In order for the south to balance them with the demands of the union and outside countries, they forced more slaves into the south.

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.

Eli Whitney was an American inventor best known for inventing the cotton gin. This was one of the key inventions of the Industrial Revolution and shaped the economy of the Antebellum South. At age 14 he operated a profitable nail manufacturing operation in his father 's workshop during the Revolutionary War. Because his stepmother opposed his wish to attend college, Whitney worked as a farm laborer and school teacher to save money.

Each of these men contributed something great to the textile industry and changed how it would run from then on. Even though Samuel Slater was born and lived in England for a long period of time, he is consider to be the founder of the cotton textile industry in the United States by many economic historians. Slater was born on June 9, 1768 in Belper, Derbyshire, England and when he became old enough, he was employed as an apprentice to the owner of a textile factory. There he learned the trades of the business which would later influence his own endeavors. American inventor Eli Whitney was born on December 8, 1765 in Westborough, Massachusetts and from an early age he had an affinity for machines.

It revolutionized the cotton industry by making it more profitable. A machine was now used to remove seeds from cotton rather than having to remove them by hand. This allowed more cotton to be processed quicker which made production of cotton more efficient for farmers. Prior to the invention of the cotton gin, slavery was actually dying out in the southern United States due to how labor intensive the removal of seeds from cotton had become.

Born in Westborough, Massachusetts on December 8, 1765, he was the oldest child of Eli Whitney Sr. and Elizabeth Fay. At the age of 14, he was making nails in his father's workshop during the Revolutionary War. Later, he went on to invent the cotton gin to help decrease the need for slaves on cotton plantations. Ironically, this had completely the opposite effect, making cotton the cash crop of the South, and increasing the demand for slaves. While he was most famous for inventing the cotton gin, Whitney did not actually make any sizable profit from it, due to patent infringement.

In the American Journey textbook, it states on page 423, it states “The cotton gin was a compact machine that removed seeds with cotton fibers much more quickly than could be done by hand. Because cotton could be processed more easily, Southern planters wanted to grow more. As a result, they depended on slave labor to plant and pick cotton... Both parts of the South were agricultural, but the Upper South still produced tobacco, hemp, wheat, and vegetables. The Deep South was committed to cotton and, in some areas, to rice and sugarcane.”