Who Really Invented the Cotton Gin?

After the Revolutionary War, Americans quickly began to establish their own industries, eager to move on from the embargos placed on them during British rule. One agricultural industry that flourished was the growing and ginning of cotton, its success largely coming from the invention of the cotton gin. Most Americans believe that Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin. Southern folklore tells a different story—that a young blacksmith from South Carolina, Henry Ogden Holmes, patented the first practical cotton gin. It was a continuous-flow rip-saw-toothed gin, much more efficient than Whitney’s first gin. Who Really Invented the Cotton Gin? delves into the history and folklore surrounding the first cotton gins. Iowa State University Professor Emeritus Wesley F. Buchele, who taught farm machinery design for forty-three years, and William D. Mayfield, a longtime expert in cotton ginning technology, use their technical and investigative expertise to share what made Holmes’ and Whitney’s gins different, who came up with what design first and patented it, and who really did invent the first practical cotton gin.