1. “…he can make anything…”

2. Basic Biographical Data 1765 - Born in Westborough, MA 1792 – Studied law at Yale University, CT 1792 – visits plantations in S. Carolina and Georgia 1793 – invents the cotton gin to help slaves clean cotton faster and easier

3. Basic Biographical Data 1798 – built a musket factory using the concept of interchangeable parts and a simple assembly line process 1825 – died in Connecticut

4. Why is Whitney Important? On trip to SC plantation, EW notices slaves working hard 1793 – invents the cotton gin to help slaves clean cotton faster and easier…improve productivity and profit for plantation

5. The Cotton Gin Raw cotton goes in Roller combs rip cotton fibers apart Seeds fall to the bottom Clean cotton collects here Hand crank to turn the roller combs

6. Productivity Before the Cotton Gin

7. Productivity After the Cotton Gin 50

8. The Rest of the Story… EW had a patent for his invention…but… The cotton gin was easy to duplicate Farmers made their own machines EW and his lawyers spent years traveling the South suing and losing…

9. The Other Important Development 1798 - The USA feared the war between France and Britain might spill over to the US EW received a US government contract to build 10,000 muskets…applied the concept of interchangeable parts to his factory

10. Interchangeable Parts Product made the same way each time Identical parts in each product Workers specialize in their one task Broken parts are easy to replace

11. The Rest of the Story… It took 10 years for EW to deliver all the muskets Factory used an assembly line concept Machine tools built standardized parts Raised productivity One of the first factories to “mass produce” a product

12. Life Before Whitney’s Inventions Slaves had to clean cotton by hand… slow and painful work…expensive Muskets and pistols were custom made…one at a time…expensive

13. Whitney’s Inventions Change Life Introduced the concept of mass production to American business Saved businesses time and money Increased productivity of slaves on plantations Increased profits Increased use of slaves on plantations

14. Bibliography Eli Whitney: The Inventor..http://www.eliwhitney.org/new/museum/ab out-eli-whitney/inventor Hall of Fame: Inventor Profile.. 2002.http://www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/152.ht ml

15. Photo Credits https://cascience6.wikispaces.com/file/view/wh itney.jpg/31208319/whitney.jpg http://image.volunteersolutions.org/images/cac he/000/010/244/509/10244509488.gif http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_VxbpoAZrMXE/SvfU 9qa6VsI/AAAAAAAAAd8/Isgu8iFv6_M/s320/co tton_gin.jpg