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A cotton gin (short for cotton engine) is a machine that quickly and easily separates the cotton fibers from the seeds, a job previously done by hand. These seeds are either used again to grow more cotton or, if badly damaged, are 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 "machine".

Origins

The gin method for seeding cotton can be traced back as far as the first century AD. The earliest versions consisted of a single roller made of iron or wood and a flat piece of stone or wood. Evidence for this type of gin has been found in Africa, Asia, and North America. The first documentation of the cotton gin by contemporary scholars is found in the fifth century AD. Visual evidence of the single-roller gin exists in the form of fifth-century Buddhist paintings in the Ajanta Caves in western India. These early gins were difficult to use and required a great deal of skill. A narrow single roller was necessary to expel the seeds from the cotton without crushing the seeds. The design was similar to that of a metate, which was used to grind grain. The earliest history of the cotton gin is ambiguous due to the fact that archeologists likely mistook the cotton gin's parts for other tools.^[1]

Between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, dual roller gins appeared in India and China. The Indian version of the two roller gin was prevalent throughout the Mediterranean cotton trade by the sixteenth century. This mechanical device was, in some areas, driven by water power.^[2]

The modern cotton gin was created by the American inventor Eli Whitney in 1793 to mechanize the cleaning of cotton. The invention was granted a patent on 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 in the early 1870s and later reprinted in 1910 in the The Library of Southern Literature. In this article the author mentioned how Catherine Littlefield Greene suggested to Whitney the use of a brush-like component instrumental to separate out the seeds and cotton. Because social norms inhibited women from registering for patents, Eli Whitney received the patent-and the sole credit in history textbooks until recently.

Many people attempted to develop a design that would process short staple cotton and Hodgen Holmes, Robert Watkins, William Longstreet, and John Murray were all issued patents for improvement to the cotton gin by 1796.^[3] 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.^[4].

Effects of the cotton gin

The immediate effect of the gin was to cause a massive growth in the production of cotton in the American South. Whereas cotton had formerly required considerable labor to clean and separate the fiber from the seeds, the cotton gin revolutionized the process. The wholesale price of cotton plummeted as output increased dramatically. Cotton cloth (which had formerly been quite expensive) was manufactured in bulk in England and the North Eastern United States. Large areas of land in American states such as Mississippi were cleared and planted with cotton to meet increasing demand. A by-product of the cotton gin was the expansion of slavery through the region, as laborers were needed to plant and harvest cotton. Many of the plantations of the Antebellum South were built on cotton fortunes, which could not have occurred without the cotton gin's invention.^{[citation needed]}

How Whitney's model works

Whitney's cotton gin model cleans 50 pounds of lint per day^[5]. The model consists of a wooden cylinder surrounded by rows of slender spikes which pull the lint through the bars of a comb-like grid ^[5]. The grids are closely spaced, prohibiting the seeds from passing through.

Diagram of a modern gin plant - courtesy USDA

Notes

^ Lakwete, 1-6.
^ Baber, page 57
^ Lakwete, 64-76.
^ The American Historical Review by Henry Eldridge Bourne, Robert Livingston Schuyler Editors: 1895–July 1928; J.F. Jameson and others.; Oct. 1928–Apr. 1936, H.E. Bourne and others; July 1936–Apr. 1941, R.L. Schuyler and others; July 1941– G.S. Ford and others. Published 1991, American Historical Association [etc.], pp 90–101.
^ ^a ^b M E Harr. (1977). "Mechanics of particulate media; A probabilistic approach". McGraw-Hill.

References

Baber, Zaheer. The Science of Empire: Scientific Knowledge, Civilization, and Colonial Rule in India. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996. ISBN 0791429199.
Lakwete, Angela. Inventing the Cotton Gin: Machine and Myth in Antebellum America. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003.

External links

Different Types Of Gin - Articles about different types of ginning machine.
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
Cotton Gin Manufacturer - Lummus Corporation Web site
US Cotton Gin Industry (EH.Net Encyclopedia of Economic History)
Invention of Cotton Gin - eHistory.com

[1] Lakwete, 1-6.

[Baber1-2] Baber, page 57

[3] Lakwete, 64-76.

[4] The American Historical Review by Henry Eldridge Bourne, Robert Livingston Schuyler Editors: 1895–July 1928; J.F. Jameson and others.; Oct. 1928–Apr. 1936, H.E. Bourne and others; July 1936–Apr. 1941, R.L. Schuyler and others; July 1941– G.S. Ford and others. Published 1991, American Historical Association [etc.], pp 90–101.

[harr-5] M E Harr. (1977). "Mechanics of particulate media; A probabilistic approach". McGraw-Hill.

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@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 [[Image:Patent for Cotton Gin (1794) - hi res.jpg|thumb|200px|Cotton gin patent, March 14, 1794]]
 [[Image:Cotton gin EWM 2007.jpg|thumb|right|200px|A cotton gin on display at the [[Eli Whitney Museum]].]]
-[[Image:Cotton gin harpers.jpg|thumb|right|200px|lalalaAn engraving from [[Harper's Magazine]] from 1869 depicting the first cotton gin more than 70 years earlier]]
+[[Image:Cotton gin harpers.jpg|thumb|right|200px|An engraving from [[Harper's Magazine]] from 1869 depicting the first cotton gin more than 70 years earlier]]
 A '''cotton gin''' (short for ''cotton engine'') is a machine that quickly and easily separates the [[cotton]] fibers from the seeds, a job previously done by hand. These seeds are either used again to grow more cotton or, if badly damaged, are 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 "machine".