The development of the cotton gin — patented in 1794 — involves an interesting lesson about solving engineering problems. Farmers in the southern United States had a big problem. Tobacco was a ...

His parents failed to provide him with enough money to support his education as a young man. Whitney created an improved mechanical cotton gin in 1793, patented it in 1794, and it spread throughout ...

click image for close-up In October of 1793, Eli Whitney sent a drawing of his new invention, the cotton gin, to Secretary of ... Finally, in February 1794, Whitney completed the model to his ...

The gin solved the problem inherent in marketing short-staple cotton, which grew easily in ... Whitney's fourteen-year patent was not issued until March 1794, due to the outbreak of Yellow Fever ...