Eli Whitney the Father of American Technology

Eli Whitney has been deemed the "father of American technology," for two innovations: the cotton gin, and the idea of using interchangeable parts. Whitney was born in Westboro, Massachusetts on December 8, 1765 and died on January 8, 1825 in New Haven Connecticut. Though he is best remembered for inventing the cotton gin, his most important contribution was the development of mass production and interchangeable parts.

Whitney entered Yale College in May of 1789. There he learned many of the new concepts and experiments in science and the applied arts, as technology was then called. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa in the fall of 1792. Whitney was disappointed twice in promised teaching posts. The second offer was in Georgia, where, stranded without employment, short of cash, and far from home be was befriended by Catharine Greene, widow of the Revolutionary War general. It...
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