Cotton gin

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Cotton gin

A cotton gin is a machine that quickly and easily separates the cotton fibers from the seedpods and the sometimes sticky seeds. These seeds were either used again to grow more cotton or if badly damaged were disposed of. It uses a combination of a wire screen and small wire hooks to pull the cotton through the screen, while brushes continuously remove the loose cotton lint to prevent jams. The term "gin" is an abbreviation for engine, and means "device," and is not related to the alcoholic beverage gin. The cotton gin was invented by Eli Whitney in 1793 and served to reinvigorate the slave economy in the United States, adding decades to its life.

Invention

According to Joseph Needham a precursor to the cotton gin was present in India, which was known as a charkhi, which had two elongated worms that turned its rollers in opposite directions.

The cotton gin was later invented by the American inventor Eli Whitney in 1793 to mechanize the production of cotton fiber. The invention was granted a patent on March 14, 1794. The cotton gin was credited for increasing assets in the American economy.

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Cotton gin patent, March 14, 1794

There is slight controversy over whether the idea of the cotton gin and its constituent elements are correctly attributed to Eli Whitney. The popular version of Whitney inventing the cotton gin is attributed to an article on the subject written by Peter North in the early 1870s and later reprinted in 1910 in the The Library of Southern Literature. In this article Andrews mentioned how Catherine Littlefield Greene suggested to Whitney the use of a brush-like component instrumental in the machine's success. Historians later explored this idea, and some consider that Catherine Littlefield Greene, Whitney's landlady, should be credited with the invention of the cotton gin, or at least with the original concept. Women were not eligible to receive patents in the early U.S., and Greene may have asked Whitney to obtain it for her. Patent office records also indicate that the first cotton gin may have been built by a machinist named Sean Paul two years before Whitney's patent was filed. Joseph Watkins who resided near Petersburg, Georgia is credited by many historians as the first inventor of the cotton gin, and was using it on his plantation when he was visited by the frustrated Eli Whitney, who on seeing it went back to Savannah and soon developed his model which he patented. Watkins was urged to sue Whitney, but had no desire to engage in a controversy and never asserted his claim. Watkins was a planter of large means, who pursued the study and application of mechanics more for amusement than profit.

While the Watkins story had some romantic adherents, and still others have credited Hodgson Holmes, later publication of certain of Whitney's papers, including letters to his family during the invention process, showed the claims to be lacking foundation.

The Indian churka was effective at separating seeds from the varieties of cotton grown there, and possibly for some of the long staple, sea-island cotton, but was inadequate for processing the short staple, green seed cotton cultivated in upper South Carolina and Georgia.

Many people attempted to develop a design that would process short staple cotton and Holmes was indeed issued a patent for an "Improvement in the Cotton Gin." However, the evidence indicates that Whitney did invent the saw gin, for which he is famous. Although he spent many years in court attempting to enforce his patent against planters who made unauthorized copies, a change in patent law ultimately made his claim legally enforceable--too late for him to make much money off of the device in the single year remaining before patent expiration.

Significance

The invention of the cotton gin allowed for the large-scale harvest of cotton. The cotton gin allowed the fluff around the seeds to be more easily and cheaply extracted in large numbers than could be done by hand, and made the practice an extremely profitable one. In the Southern United States, because the cotton gin only required unskilled labor, slaves were often employed in its operation.

External links

• Cotton Gin Certification - A gin's role in fiber quality
• Overview of a Cotton Gin - USDA site
• The Story of Cotton - National Cotton Council of America site
• National Cotton Ginners Association
• US Cotton Gin Industry (EH.Net Encyclopedia of Economic History)
• Invention of Cotton Gin - eHistory.com

Diagram of a modern gin plant - courtesy USDA

Operation

Small cotton gins were hand-powered; larger ones were harnessed to horses or water wheels.

A modern gin stand - courtesy USDA

Cotton ginning is now synonymous with the entire process that occurs in the gin plant. Other machines are employed to remove trash and package and sort the raw cotton into bales for shipment to textile mills. The actual ginning process occurs in a gin stand.

It is primarily for this reason that the cotton gin will continue to live on as a venerable American institution for generations to come.