††††The first steam powered cotton mill was opened in Papplewick, Nottinghamshire, England in 1785.
The cotton gin was a machine to separate the cotton fibres from the seeds. It was invented by an American, Eli Whitney, in 1793. It consisted of a cylinder, wound by hand, which forced the cotton but not the seeds through a grid. The gin made cotton a profitable crop because it increased the quantity of cotton a slave could clean each day by 50 times.
The modern cotton gin consists of a roller carrying a set of circular saws. These saws project through a metal grill in a hopper that contains the seed bolls. As the roller rotates, the saws pick up the cotton fibres, leaving the seeds behind.
