Cotton Gin

The Cotton Gin or gin is a 1793 fictional textile machine ( lint English), the cotton fibers from the seedpods and the sometimes sticky seeds separates ( ginned ). In an article in the The Library of Southern Literature from 1870, which was reprinted in 1910, the invention is attributed to Eli Whitney. In this article the author describes but also that Catherine Littlefield Greene Whitney the use of a brush-like component suggested that it is necessary to remove the seeds from the cotton. To date, there is no independent confirmation of the role of Greene in the invention. Nevertheless, many believe that Eli Whitney is known as the only inventor in history text books and the patent was awarded, because the social norm prevented at the time that women could apply for patents.

The Cotton Gin consists of a combination of wire screen and small wire hooks to pull the cotton through the screen. Brushes continually remove this loose cotton fibers in order to prevent blockages. Small Cotton Gins worked with manual drive, while larger were operated by horse or water power.

The word gin here has no relationship with the drink gin, but stands for " Engine", device or machine. It was not until the invention of the cotton gin enabled in the Southern United States cotton cultivation in a big way and also made ​​so that the use of slave only really profitable. Because they were no longer needed for labor-intensive picking cotton by hand, but could be used as a picker in the fields. This in turn attracted an enormous expansion of cultivated land by itself. The slave economy in the Southern dominated by agricultural production brought these during the 19th century increasingly in conflict with the characteristically industrial northern states and eventually led to the American Civil War.