Eli Whitney Biography

Eli Whitney was an American inventor who gave the world a powerful machinery to produce heaps of cotton without much hassle, money and labor. His invention is called ‘cotton gin’, ‘gin’ being short for engine. It was a machine that was able to quickly and efficiently clean the cotton using coordination of hooks, wires and a rotating brush. Although Whitney belonged to a family of a farmer, he was always interested in machinery and science and when he was only 14 years old, during the time of Revolutionary War, he invented the nail manufacturing function, which was widely used for various purposes. It was when he went to Georgia and started reading law for Mrs. Greene at her farm; he realized that cotton farming remains backward due to the long amount of tedious work it involves. This inspired him to invent the machine that flourished Southern cotton farming. Not only this, another of his prominent work is his championing the milling machines which helped in manufacturing of the arms part by part, instead of manufacturing it in one piece.