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Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin...



Item # 689390

May 23, 1818

NILES' WEEKLY REGISTER, Baltimore, May 23, 1818 

* Inventor Eli Whitney
* Cotton Gin invention


An extremely significant back page report is headed: "Labor Saving Machinery" which notes: "There is now annually raised...with Mr. Whitney's machine, about one hundred millions of pounds of short staple cotton. To pick that quality by hand...before his invention would require the constant labor of 330,000 workers...".
Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin revolutionized the cotton industry. Before his invention farming cotton required hundreds of man-hours to separate the cottonseed from the raw cotton fibers. His machine could generate up to fifty pounds of cleaned cotton daily, making cotton production profitable for the southern states.
Other items in this issue include: "Indian War" with a letter signed in type: Andrew Jackson; and "Irish Emigrant Societies" among other articles.
Sixteen pages, 6 1/4 by 9 1/2 inches, scattered foxing, nice condition.

As noted in Wikipedia, this title: "...(was) one of the most widely-circulated magazines in the United States...Devoted primarily to politics...considered an important source for the history of the period."

Category: Pre-Civil War