Eli Whitney

Eli Whitney (1765–1825) was an American inventor and manufacturer best known for developing a machine that separated cotton fibers from seeds and for his role in firearms manufacturing.

Cotton gin: A machine that separates cotton fibers from seeds and other unwanted material. Whitney’s most famous invention mechanized the separation of short-staple cotton.
Yale University: A private research university in New Haven, Connecticut, founded in 1701. Whitney graduated from Yale in 1792 before beginning his career as an inventor.
Samuel Slater: An English-born American industrialist who established early successful cotton-spinning mills in the United States. Slater’s textile mills formed part of the growing industrial economy that Whitney’s gin helped supply.
Expansion of slavery in the United States: The growth of enslaved labor and slaveholding territory in the United States, especially during the nineteenth century. By making short-staple cotton profitable, the gin strengthened demand for enslaved labor.
Hand-picking cotton: The manual removal of seeds and debris from harvested cotton fibers. The gin replaced much of this slow processing step for short-staple cotton.
Interchangeable parts: The use of standardized components that can replace one another in an assembled product. Whitney became closely associated with applying standardized parts to firearms production.
Catherine Greene: An American plantation owner who hosted Whitney in Georgia and supported his work on the cotton gin. Greene’s estate and encouragement provided the setting for Whitney’s cotton-gin development.
Oliver Wolcott Jr.: An American politician who served as secretary of the treasury and governor of Connecticut. Wolcott helped Whitney obtain government contracts for firearms production.
Cotton Kingdom: The cotton-producing region of the American South that expanded westward during the nineteenth century. The cotton gin helped make cotton production the economic foundation of this expanding region.
Long-staple cotton: Cotton with long fibers that can be separated from seeds more easily than short-staple varieties. Unlike short-staple cotton, it did not depend on Whitney’s gin for practical processing.

Linked from 7 pages