King of Cotton
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Fascinating Facts About Cotton

King of Cotton, also, Fascinating Facts About Cotton. . , King of Cotton , The cotton gin was invented by Eli Whitney in 1793. The gin (short for engine) revolutionized the cotton industry in the south as well as slavery. Cotton farmers no longer needed slaves to pick the cotton seed out of the plant therefore had more slaves in the fields, enabling them to increase the acreage of their plantation., Cotton Gins would have been found on the large plantations or in the local towns. Farmers from this area, York County, would have brought their cotton to the town of Yorkville, today it is known as York., What you are looking at are the gears to the cotton gin. The gin would have been located upstairs and powered by work animals attached to the long poles that you can see. Notice the gin located at the far left corner of the building. The cotton would have been fed through the saq blades and come out the other end, free of seeds., Fascinating Facts About Cotton , Moths cannot harm cotton. , Sheer Cotton muslin, woven in India hundreds of years ago, was so fine that 73 yards weighed only 1 pound. , Only High Priests in ancient Egypt were allowed to wear cotton garments. , Cotton provided insulation for Samuel Morse's telegraph. , The Wright Brothers used cotton muslin to cover the wings of their first plane. , As a result of boll weevil eradication efforts, it is illegal to grow cotton without authorization from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture., How Does It Work , Horses or mules were hitched to the sweeps at the base of the gear wheel column. As the central gear rotated, 2 smaller wheels suspended from the ceiling turned. Each had smooth leather belts attached, which ran through holes in the floor/ceiling, and turned the crankshaft that operated the gin itself, located upstairs., After being picked, the cotton was brought to the second floor and fed into the gin where rollers/brushes/saws separated the fibers from the seeds. The seeds dropped into a tray beneath the gin and were collected for next years crop. The cotton fiber was then removed from the gin and placed in the press and pressed into tight bales when horses pulled down on the pulley arms located underneath the press. Our gin lacks the ropes and weights utilizing the pulleys in the end of each arm. The main wheel of the press was turned by another leather belt. This force was multiplied using the weights and pulley system to raise the arms, compressing the bale in the shoot upstairs where it could be wrapped, tied, and then dropped through the trap door to a waiting wagon.