Eli Whitney
Eli Whitney (December 8, 1765 - January 8, 1825) was an American inventor and manufacturer who is credited with creating the first cotton gin in 1793. The cotten gin was a mechanical device which removed the seeds from cotton, which until that time was extremely labor-intensive work. 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.
There exists question today over whether the cotton gin, which Whitney received a patent for on March 14, 1794, and its constituent elements should rightly be attributed to Eli Whitney; unresolved is whether or not Catherine Littlefield Greene should be credited with the invention of the cotton gin, or at least its inception. It is known that she associated with Eli Whitney (along with other historical figures such as George and Martha Washington). Additional credence is lent by the fact that women were not allowed patents in American antiquity.
Whitney invented the American System of manufacturing, and the assembly line, and was first to use them when he won a contract with the U.S. Government to create muskets. Whitney's concepts were later exploited by Henry Ford and others in manufacturing industry.
Born in Westboro, Massachusetts, he graduated from Yale College in 1792. While his ideas were innovative and useful, they were so easy to understand and reproduce that the concepts and designs were duplicated by others. Whitney's company that produced cotton gins went out of business in 1797.
He never patented his later inventions, one of which was a milling machine.
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