218 
COTTON 
cotton gin has more than equalled in its relation 
to the power and progress of the United States." 
In reference to this invention and its effect on 
cotton manufacturing an early writer has this to 
say: 
"Its introduction at the particular period when 
the completion of the brilliant series of inventions 
for carding, spinning and weaving cotton had cre- 
ated a demand for the raw material, at once directed 
into a new and profitable channel the agriculture 
of the South, and at the same time furnished the 
manufacturing industry of Europe and America 
with one of the most valuable staples, and the ship- 
ping and commercial interests of the world with an 
enormous trade in its raw and manufactured pro- 
ducts. The increase in growth and exportation of 
new cotton which followed has no parallel in the 
annals of industry, save in the wonderful develop- 
ment of its manufacture in Europe and America." 
The effects in all their magnitude of the growth 
of cotton culture and manufacture in increasing 
material wealth, in furnishing employment to labor 
and capital, and in increasing the comfort of all 
classes, can hardly be conceived. 
THE EARLY GIN 
The gin in its early days consisted of a series of 
fine tooth circular saws fastened upon a wooden 
cylinder about three-fourths of an inch apart, 
and revolving in slits cut in a steel plate, less than a 
quarter of an inch wide. A mass of cotton in the 
seed is laid on this plate. As the saws revolve 
the teeth passing down between the openings, pull 
off the lint from the seed and carry it through with 
them, the openings being narrow enough to pre- 
