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Eli Whitney's cotton gin (1793) pulled cotton fibre through wire teeth and left the seed behind; it met the demand of England's mechanised spinning and was copied everywhere despite his patent. Britannica credits it with fixing cotton cultivation, almost to the exclusion of other crops, in the U.S. South and so institutionalising slavery.
The mechanism
A TECHNOLOGY THAT TURNS THE BOARD
How it was checked
- EvidenceT5 INDEPENDENT SECULAR; Status: ADDED 2026-09-19
- Letter eraTHE SEAT MOVES TO THE BENCH 1713 to 1945
- SourcesRECORD — Britannica, 'cotton gin' · checked 19 September: Britannica (read in a browser; WebFetch is refused by the site), 'cotton gin'
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