Eli Whitney (1765-1825)

"One of my primary objects is to form the tools so the tools themselves shall fashion the work and give to every part its just proportion."

An early American inventor, Eli Whitney is best known for inventing the cotton gin, which removed seeds from cotton plants and made the harvesting of cotton significantly less time-and-labor-intensive. Whitney also invented interchangeable parts for rifles, which made possible the mass production of arms.
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Articles:
Eli Whitney
Source:
Eli Whitney 2005 p. 1
Accession Number:
17991861
Lexile:
1060
Database(s):
History Reference Center, Primary Search
Cotton Gin
Source:
Reader's Companion to American History 1991 Vol. 1 p. 242
Accession Number:
RCAH214
Lexile:
1080
Database(s):
History Reference Center
Eli Whitney
Source:
Biographical Encyclopedia of Scientists 1998 p. 1343
Accession Number:
11431412
Lexile:
980
Database(s):
Marshall Cavendish Science Reference Center