Eli Whitney
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Image:Whitney-Eli-LOC.jpg Eli Whitney (December 8, 1765 - January 8, 1825) was an American inventor and manufacturer.
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Biography
Born on December 8, 1765 in Westborough, Massachusetts, the son of a farmer, Whitney graduated from Yale College in 1792, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. On January 6, 1817 he married Henrietta Edwards.
Invention and innovation
Cotton gin
Whitney is credited with creating the first cotton gin in 1793, a mechanical device which removed the seeds from cotton, a process which until that time had been extremely labor-intensive. This contributed to the economic development of the Southern states of the United States, a prime cotton growing area; some historians believe that this invention allowed for the African slavery system in the Southern United States to become more sustainable at a critical point in its development.
While his ideas were innovative and useful, they reproduced so easily that the concepts and designs were readily duplicated by others. Whitney's company that produced cotton gins went out of business in 1797.
Interchangeable parts
Eli Whitney is also credited with the creation of interchangeable parts and subsequently of the mass production of rifles in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The concept of interchangeable parts–identical components of a larger mechanism that could easily be swapped or replaced–actually had longer lasting effects than the cotton gin, in large part enabling the boom of cheap, mass production that began in the late nineteenth century. It is odd, therefore, that Whitney is known primarily for the cotton gin.
The Eli Whitney Museum is now housed in his former musket factory.
External links
- [1]
- Essay from Cotton Times
- Eli Whitney Biography on the Whitney Research Group website.de:Eli Whitney
es:Eli Whitney fr:Éli Whitney ko:엘리 휘트니 pl:Eli Whitney pt:Eli Whitney sv:Eli Whitney Eli Whitney is buried in New haven.