REVISITING THE OLD COTTON GIN
It is probably more accurate to say that Eli Whitney, while a Yale student, 'patented' the cotton gin, than to say that he had invented the cotton gin, which he learned of while visiting Georgia, during summer break, since slaves, its most probable 'inventors,' were unable to receive patents in 1793.
These thoughts come afresh to me as I read footnote 21 in the classic, UNCLE TOM'S CABIN, by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1852, 1987):
"'Whitney's cotton-gin.' In 1793, Eli Whitney (1765-1825) patented the cotton gin which mechanically separated cotton from its seeds. Stowe's note that a young colored man was really the inventor, or first had the idea is probably true; the patent law, of course, did not apply to slaves."
A "Wikipedia" article linked below says that the wife of the man on whose plantation the cotton gin was invented made "significant" improvements to "design flaws," in the device after it was patented, although she was given no credit for having done so by Eli Whitney.
This disclosure reinforces the notion that Eli Whitney was an opportunist, rather than an inventor, since wealthy plantation mistresses did not have to work with their hands, to invent or to improve anything . Slaves did.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli_Whitney
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