The Cotton Gin and Eli Whitney
Whitney was born in Westboro, Massachusetts on December 8, 1765 and died on January 8, 1825. He graduated from Yale College in 1792. By April 1793, Whitney had designed and constructed the cotton gin, a machine that automated the separation of cottonseed from the short-staple cotton fiber. With the invention of the cotton gin, mass production of cotton became an easier product to produce.
I relate this to Richard Arkwright's water frame. The water frame thus required large specialized mills, factories that employed as many as one thousand workers from the very beginning. The water frame could spin only a coarse, strong thread, which was then put out for respinning on hand-powered cottage jennies. This allowed for more production to be made as well.
(cotton gin upper photo)
(water frame upper photo)
No comments:
Post a Comment