. The library of historic characters and famous events of all nations and all ages. lothing hasbeen known from remoteantiquity in tropical coun-tries, it was not until thenineteenth century thatthe universality of its em-ployment made Cottonking. The difficulty wasnot in preparing the fibrefor wearing, but in separ-ating it from the cotton-seed. To get a poundof clean cotton, withoutwasting any, used to re-quire a days labor. Hence the raising of it remainedunprofitable until Yankee ingenuity expedited the work. Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cotton-gin, which stimu-lated the agricultural sy
. The library of historic characters and famous events of all nations and all ages. lothing hasbeen known from remoteantiquity in tropical coun-tries, it was not until thenineteenth century thatthe universality of its em-ployment made Cottonking. The difficulty wasnot in preparing the fibrefor wearing, but in separ-ating it from the cotton-seed. To get a poundof clean cotton, withoutwasting any, used to re-quire a days labor. Hence the raising of it remainedunprofitable until Yankee ingenuity expedited the work. Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cotton-gin, which stimu-lated the agricultural system of the Southern States, wasborn at Westborough, Massachusetts, on December 8, graduating at Yale College in 1792 he went to Georgiaas a teacher, but being taken ill, was invited by Greene, widow of the famous Revolutionarygeneral, to reside at her house. The neighboring plantersfound themselves oppressed with debt, and at Mrs. Greenestable discussed the trouble of cleaning cotton. She remarked :Gentlemen, apply to my young friend, Mr. Whitney; he316. (( ELI WHITNEY. 317 can make anything. Whitney had already shown mechani-cal skill and had repaired apparatus at college. When thenew task was proposed, he had never seen a cotton-pod. Butfinding some, he tried to frame a machine for the was obliged to make his own tools and draw his own the spring of 1793 he completed his device. The cottonwas put in a large trough, the bottom of which was formedof parallel wires set so closely that the seed could not passthrough. But under the trough saws revolved whose teethslipped between the wires, seized the cotton fibre, and drewit through while the seed poured out at the end of the Whitney had finished his model, the building contain-ing it was broken into by night, and the machine carried he could secure a patent, several similar machines wereset up and operated. Whitney soon formed a partnership with a man of somewe
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjecthistory, bookyear1895
