Cotton Gin Eli Whitney Inventions-Convention-Yellow

8/12/2019 Cotton Gin Eli Whitney Inventions-Convention-Yellow

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Cotton Gin

Cotton was king among crops in the South for generations. Historical evidence shows

that cotton was grown in India, China, Egypt and Pakistan thousands of years ago.

Columbus found cotton plants growing in the Bahamas. It was first spun by machinery in

England in the early 18th century. Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin in 1794revolutionized the cotton industry in the United States. Prior to his invention, farming

cotton was expensive and labor-intensive, requiring hundreds of man-hours to separate

the cottonseed from the raw cotton fibers. Although simple seed-removing devices havebeen around for centuries, Whitney's invention automated the seed separation process.

His machine could generate up to 50 pounds of cleaned cotton daily, marking the

beginnings of profitable cotton production. This booming cotton economy in turn had asignificant effect on the spread of slavery in the southern states. Although many

modifications and improvements have been made, Whitney's original design principles

remain relatively unchanged today. In addition to separating the seed from the fiber,

today's cotton gins also dry, clean and package the fiber before it reaches the textile mills.

Using electric power and improved technologies, these automated gins can handle up to15 tons of cotton per hour.

Photo Credits:

Lummus Cotton Gins

CREATED/PUBLISHED1896

REPOSITORYRare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, Duke University.

DATABASE/REPRODUCTION NUMBERB0043

DIGITAL IDhttp://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/eaa/broadsides/B00/B0043/B0043-01-72dpi.html

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Reaper

A reaper is a machine with revolving bars or teeth used for harvesting grains. Prior to its

invention, harvesting was done by hand with cutting tools such as the sickle and scythe,

or by animal-drawn wheeled boxes mounted with iron-teethed planks. The first recorded

English patent for a mechanical reaper was issued to Joseph Boyce in 1799. Althoughother early reapers were developed using either vibrating knives or revolving cutters,

none of these gained widespread use. In the 1830s, two Americans -- Obed Hussey in

Ohio and Cyrus McCormick in Virginia -- developed successful mechanical reapingmachines. These first horse-drawn inventions cut the standing grain and swept it onto

attached platforms. Men walked along next to the machines raking the cut grain into

piles. These early reapers saved farmers hours of manual labor and enabled crops to begrown on a much larger scale. McCormick eventually purchased the patent rights to

Hussey's cutting bar and began the mass production of his reaper in a Chicago factory. In

1851, his machine became an international sensation when it won a Gold Medal at the

London Crystal Palace exposition. He later modified his original design to enable the

grain to be cut, raked and bound by the same machine. By the 20th century, the reaperwas replaced by a one-man-operated harvesting machine called a combine, which cut,

gathered, threshed and sacked grain mechanically. However, it was the invention of thereaper that began the transition from hand farming to the mechanized agricultural

industry we know today.

Photo Credit:

TITLE: Lagonda Agricultural Works, Springfield, Clark County, Ohio, Warder,Brokaw & Child / E. Forbes, del. ; lith. of G.W. Lewis, N.Y.

CALL NUMBER: PGA- Lewis (G.W.)--Lagonda AgricultureSUMMARY: Scenes of Lagonda Agricultural Works: men harvesting grain, andharvesting machinery.

CREATED/PUBLISHED: c1859.Forbes, Edwin, 1839-1895, artist.

NOTES:Published in: Eyes of the nation : a visual history of the United States / Vincent Virga andcurators of the Library of Congress ; historical commentary by Alan Brinkley. New York

: Knopf, 1997.

REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington,D.C. 20540 USA

DIGITAL ID: (color film copy transparency) cph3g01837http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3g01837

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Corn Detasseler

When the "corn is as high as an elephant's eye" it must be time for detasseling. If you live

in the United States' Midwestern corn-belt, chances are that you or family members have

spent a summer walking between rows of corn plants removing corn tassels. This 1948

image depicts a unique machine called a detasseler that was developed to assist in thislabor-intensive job. In the 1930s, scientists and seed corn producers discovered that

hybridization, the process of cross-pollinating plants, produced larger crop yields and

taller, healthier ears of corn. When corn is grown naturally, it will pollinate itself. Inorder to produce hybrid corn, different strains of corn are cross-pollinated. Cornfields are

planted with two types of corn. One type is detasseled so it can't pollinate itself, while the

other variety serves as the pollinator. The detasseled corn will bear the hybrid seed corn.Manually detasseling corn was a slow and tedious task most often performed by women

and teenagers. Workers walked up and down cornrows, grabbing the tassels, yanking

them off and throwing them on the ground. It took several trips through each cornrow

before a field could be completely cleared. In 1946, Iowan Ray Hagie developed a three-

wheeled tractor similar to the one pictured above that could carry six workers through thefield above the crop canopy at one and one half miles per hour so they could easily and

efficiently pull off the tassels. More sophisticated versions of this machine are usedtoday. Although seed companies are currently developing methods of producing pollen-

less corn, detasseling is a still a necessary part of the corn production process and

continues to require manual labor to accomplish the task.

Photo Credits:

TITLE #1 Corn detasseller, manned by teen-aged farm workers at Coon Rapids, Ia., in1948

SUMMARY:

Teenage boys riding on corn detasseller, which was driven down cornrows, as the boys pulled tassels of one variety of corn, leaving the other variety topollinate the detasselled corn for hybrid corn seed.

CREATED/PUBLISHED: 1948.NOTES: From the collections of Encyclopedia Britannica.

DIGITAL ID: (b&w film copy neg.) cph3c12925http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3c12925

TITLE #2: O! how high, Colorado corn / photo. by L.C. McClure, Denver.

CREATED/PUBLISHED[1921].

SUMMARYTall tasseled corn on eastern Colorado plains; farmer, wearing overalls and boots,

measures height with outstretched arm.

REPOSITORYWestern History/Genealogy Department, Denver Public Library, 10 W. 14th Avenue

Parkway, Denver, Colorado 80204.

DIGITAL IDcodhawp00072937http://photoswest.org/cgi-bin/imager?00072937+MCC-2937

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Ice Cream Cone

Would you rather eat delicious, creamy ice cream from a bowl or a cone? On July 23, 1904, the choice

became available when Charles E. Minches of St. Louis, Missouri, developed the idea of filling a pastrycone with ice cream, and the ice cream cone was invented. The walk-away cone made its debut later that

year at the St. Louis World's Fair. Of course, before the cone, someone had to invent ice cream. Do you

know when ice cream was invented?

The origins of ice cream go way back to the 4th century B.C. when the Roman emperor Nero ordered ice tobe brought from the mountains and combined it with fruit toppings. In the 13th century, Marco Polo

learned of the Chinese method of creating ice and milk mixtures and brought it back to Europe. Over time,people created recipes for ices, sherbets, and milk ices. It became a fashionable treat in Italy and France,

and once imported to the United States, ice cream was served by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson,

and Dolley Madison. Jefferson's favorite flavor was vanilla. What's yours?

Whatever flavor ice cream you like best, you can make it by mixing cream, sugar, and flavorings (like

chocolate or strawberry) and then carefully lowering the mixture's temperature until it sets. The discovery

of using salt to control the temperature of the ingredients, along with the invention of the wooden bucket

freezer with rotary paddles, were major breakthroughs in the creation of ice cream as we know it. A

Baltimore company was the first to sell it to stores in 1851. Finally, with the introduction of refrigerator-freezers came the ice cream shop, which has become a symbol of American culture. Do you scream for ice

cream?

Photo Credits:

TITLE: Childrenmakingicecreamto be sold for the benefit of the church at a ministers and deacons

meeting near Yanceyville, Caswell County, North CarolinaCREATED/PUBLISHED: 1940 Oct.?

CREATOR: Wolcott, Marion Post, 1910- photographer.PART OF: Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection (Library of

Congress)REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC 20540 USA

DIGITAL ID: (intermediary roll film) fsa 8a43752

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?pp/fsaall:@field(NUMBER+@band(fsa+8a43752))

TITLE: Farmboyseatingice-creamcones. Washington, Indiana

CREATED/PUBLISHED: 1941 July.CREATOR: Vachon, John, 1914-1975, photographer.PART OF: FarmSecurity Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection (Library ofCongress)REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC 20540 USADIGITAL ID: (intermediary roll film) fsa 8a32921

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?pp/fsaall:@field(NUMBER+@band(cph+3c29115))

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http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?pp/fsaall:@field(NUMBER+@band(fsa+8a43752http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?pp/fsaall:@field(NUMBER+@band(fsa+8a43752

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Cotton Gin Eli Whitney Inventions-Convention-Yellow