Eli Whitney was born in Westboro, Massachusetts on December 8, 1765 and died on January 8, 1825.  In 1783 he decided to attend a college but he was not admitted to Yale College until eight years later.  Soon after he graduated, Whitney visited a plantation near Savannah, Georgia and got the idea for the invention that would define him for all future generations: the cotton gin.
 The cotton gin is a device for removing the seeds from cotton fiber.  In ancient India a machine known as a charka had been developed to separate the seeds from the lint when the fiber was pulled through a set of rollers.  The charka worked well on long-staple cotton, but variations of this machine used in colonial America could not be adapted for short-staple cotton.  Before the cotton gin was introduced all cotton in the South had to be picked by hand, usually by slaves.
 The invention of the cotton gin had a great impact on the development of the southern United States.  With the gin, cotton could be cleaned so efficiently that it became the most important crop in the South and the basis of the region’s profitable agricultural economy.  Though the economy and many individuals benefited financially from the gin and it’s increased yield production, Eli Whitney did not.  Whitney entered into a partnership with the plantation manager, Phineas Miller, to manufacture cotton gins at New Haven, Connecticut.  A disastrous factory fire prevented the partners from making enough gins to meet the demand, and manufacturers throughout the South began to copy the invention.  Although Whitney and Miller received a patent on the gin in 1794, a decision protecting their patent was not rendered until 1807.  In 1812, the Congress of the United States denied Whitney’s petition for renewal of the patent.
 Although the cotton gin had many positive effects on the economy of the South, it had disastrous effects on the institution of slavery.  Through the use of horse-drawn and water-powered gins, the ginning process was speeded up enormously.  This permitted increased cotton production and lowered costs.  As a result, cotton became the cheapest and most widely used textile fabric in the world and the “need” for slaves thusly increased.
 With the advent of mechanical cotton pickers in the 20th century, it became necessary to refine the gin further.  Among many modern improvements are devices for removing trash, drying, moisturizing, fractioning fiber, sorting, cleaning, and bailing in 218-kg bundles.  Using electric power and air-blast or suction techniques, highly automated gins handle 14 metric tons of cotton an hour.  There is no doubt that Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin has had many positive and negative social, political, and economic effects on the United States.
 
 

Bibliography
Eberius, Bill.  Eli Whitney.  <www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pointe/3048/bio/WHITNEY/
 eliwhitney.html>  1999.

Mirsky, Jeanette and Allen Nevins.  The World of Eli Whitney.  Collier Books.  New York.
 1952.