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External Websites
- Engineering and Technology History Wiki - Cotton Gin
- The University of Arizona - Computer Science Department - The Story of Cotton Gin
- Eli Whitney Museum and Workshop - The Cotton Gin
- American Society of Mechanical Engineers - How the Cotton Gin Started the Civil War
- CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas - Cotton Gins
- Our Documents - Patent for Cotton Gin (1794)
- Bill of Rights Institute - Eli Whitney and the Cotton Gin
- Academia - Fact or Myth: Was Eli Whitney the first to invent the cotton gin?
- NCPedia - Eli Whitney and the Cotton Gin
- EH.net - Cotton Gin
- United States History for Kids - Eli Whitney Cotton Gin
- National Archives - Eli Whitney's Patent for the Cotton Gin
Britannica Websites
Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.
- cotton gin - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
- cotton gin - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
verifiedCite
While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies.Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.
Select Citation Style
Feedback
Thank you for your feedback
Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.
External Websites
- Engineering and Technology History Wiki - Cotton Gin
- The University of Arizona - Computer Science Department - The Story of Cotton Gin
- Eli Whitney Museum and Workshop - The Cotton Gin
- American Society of Mechanical Engineers - How the Cotton Gin Started the Civil War
- CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas - Cotton Gins
- Our Documents - Patent for Cotton Gin (1794)
- Bill of Rights Institute - Eli Whitney and the Cotton Gin
- Academia - Fact or Myth: Was Eli Whitney the first to invent the cotton gin?
- NCPedia - Eli Whitney and the Cotton Gin
- EH.net - Cotton Gin
- United States History for Kids - Eli Whitney Cotton Gin
- National Archives - Eli Whitney's Patent for the Cotton Gin
Britannica Websites
Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.
- cotton gin - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
- cotton gin - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
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The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
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cotton gin
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- Key People:
- Eli Whitney
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- cotton
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cotton gin, machine for cleaning cotton of its seeds, invented in the United States by Eli Whitney in 1793. The cotton gin is an example of an invention directly called forth by an immediate demand; the mechanization of spinning in England had created a greatly expanded market for American cotton, whose production was inhibited by the slowness of manual removal of the seeds from the raw fibre. Whitney, a Massachusetts Yankee visiting a friend in the South, learned of the problem and quickly solved it. Inspired by manual brushes invented by enslaved workers, Whitney crafted a device that pulled the cotton through a set of wire teeth mounted on a revolving cylinder, the fibre passing through narrow slots in an iron breastwork too small to permit passage of the seed. The simplicity of the invention—which could be powered by people, animals, or water—caused it to be widely copied despite Whitney’s patent; it is credited with fixing cotton cultivation, virtually to the exclusion of other crops, in the U.S. South and so institutionalizing slavery.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Melissa Petruzzello.
