Talk:Eli Whitney

Semi-protected edit request on 1 March 2026

The first sentence of the article reads "an American inventor, widely known for inventing the cotton gin in 1793" -- but Lakwete 2004 (in the Further reading section) makes it clear that the Cotton gin already existed, although previous cotton-gins used rollers instead of a wheel with wire teeth. Whitney Invented "a" cotton gin, the wire-toothed cotton-gin.

However, and here's the problem with the rest of the sentence, "one of the key inventions of the Industrial Revolution that shaped the economy of the Antebellum South.": the wire-toothed gin was not terribly successful. It's an improved version, the saw gin (with metal circular saws instead of the wire teeth) that became the standard gin for upland cotton. Roller gins stayed in use for long-fiber cotton until at least the 1860s. So you'd need to incorporate that. Shant mince words (talk) 06:52, 1 March 2026 (UTC)

The cotton gin was invented by Joseph Watkins of Elbert County, Georgia. Whitney came up from Savannah and observed it. He then patented it in his name. The story is in the book, Early Settlers of Alabama, by Saunders. ~2026-38046-48 (talk) 19:21, 4 July 2026 (UTC)