The Use Of The Cotton Gin
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Cotton gin was one of the famous inventions made during the Industrial Revolution. The word “gin” was a simple short form for the word “engine”. Invented by Eli Whitney in 1793, an American, it turned out to be an extremely useful machine, helping the cotton sales soar to great heights.
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He made use of metal hooks, wooden mesh and metallic wires to remove the cotton fibers separately from the seeds. This simplified the work of the laborers who had to spend long hours in removing and deseeding cotton seeds. The task was time consuming and ineffective. Slavery therefore became extremely rampant all over South America during the period.
The functioning of these machines was very simple. The metal hooks present on the machine would pull the cotton seeds in such a way that the fibers get separated from the seeds. This way, bundles of cotton fibers would be pulled and deseeded in a matter of minutes. The brushes present inside the machine would help in brushing the loose lint from the cotton seed.
Cotton gin also had a wooden cylinder with numerous spikes. These spikes were specifically meant for preventing the cotton seeds from entering the machine for further processing. They acted more or less like filters or sieves that would prevent larger particles like seeds from getting through.
After deseeding, the machine would send the fibers to pan that had a mesh of wires. These would allow the cotton fibers to be separated and cleaned. The end product would be a huge bunch of cotton fibers extracted in a matter of minutes.
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The usage of machines for processing cotton seeds and removing fibers dates back to the fifth century AD. Numerous paintings found in Ajanta caves in India are a standing testimony that people used singe roller machines to separate cotton fibers. Although these machines were in their stage of infancy and not as modernized as the cotton gin, they served the purpose of reducing man power. However, these gins required special skills for operation and could not be used by just about everyone.