VIEW: Eli Whitney and the Industrial Revolution

Eli Whitney and the Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution is the name given to the stage of the 19th century when power-driven machines operated by semiskilled or unskilled workers replaced hand tools operated by skilled laborers, altering the quality of work for many people. The Industrial Revolution happened in two phases, the first of which was prior to the Civil War and is studied in this module. The second, larger, phase took place after the Civil War.

U.S. inventor Eli Whitney best illustrates the rise of industrialism with his invention of the cotton gin and his development of interchangeable parts for muskets. Whitney invented the cotton gin (engine) in 1793. It is a machine that rapidly removes cotton plant seeds from the valuable cotton fiber used to make thread and fabric. By producing more cotton in a day than any person could working by hand, the gin reduced the cost of processing cotton and greatly raised the profit from growing it. To further cut costs and raise profits, unskilled slaves were often put to work running the cotton gins in the southern states.

Another industrial improvement Whitney developed was interchangeable parts. Prior to industrialization, a broken mechanism or machine had to be discarded and replaced because all its parts had been handmade by skilled workers to fit only that mechanism. Whitney introduced the practice of manufacturing identical parts so only the broken part would need to be replaced to repair the whole machine. He applied this process to making muskets. If one piece of the musket's mechanism broke, the owner could continue to use the musket after that piece was replaced with a matching piece. Interchangeable parts made it possible for semiskilled workers to mass-produce mechanical products.