The French Revolution spread like a wild fire throughout Europe. At this time, a new invention, the cotton gin was about to make American cotton available to European markets.
Though simple handheld roller gins have been used in India and other countries since 500 A.D., the first modern mechanical cotton gin was invented in 1793., and acquired patents in 1794.by Eli Whitney, an American.
Cotton gin
A cotton gin is a machine which separates cotton fibres from their seeds in no time, giving scope for increased productivity than cotton separation done manually. The fibres are processed into clothing or other cotton products, while the undamaged cotton was used for clothes. Seeds were used to grow more cotton. Also, the seeds were used to produce cottonseed oil and meal.
The machine used a combination of a wire screen and small wire hooks to pull the cotton through, while brushes continuously removed the loose cotton lint to prevent the fibre from being clogged. Whitney's Jin brought a revolution in the American cotton industry, However, it had an adverse impact too. The increase in demand for cotton workers augmented slavery in the American South.
It would not be an exaggeration if one considers this invention, a stimuli to the outbreak of the American Civil War.
Modern automated cotton gins use multiple powered cleaning cylinders and saws, and offer far higher productivity than the manually driven ones.
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