Eli Whitney

by Karen Bush Gibson

Eli Whitney was an inventor best known for his invention of the cotton gin. But it was his ideas and methods that had the greatest impact on America, bringing the country into the Industrial Revolution. He grew up as a farmer's son, but was often found in his father's workshop. As a boy during the American Revolution, he started his first business as a supplier of nails. Against his family's wishes, he insisted on getting an education from Yale. It was while he was studying to be a lawyer that he stumbled upon a solution to clean cotton. Whitney most enjoyed looking at a problem and trying to solve it, whether it was how to clean cotton or lock a desk. He created solutions with easily understood steps. With these steps, he developed a system of manufacturing that worked well with anything that had pieces to be put together. It would be used to mass-produce guns, sewing machines, and, later, cars. Today's manufacturing can be traced to Eli Whitney.

48 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Karen Bush Gibson (also known as K.B. Gibson and Karen Gibson) has been writing, well, forever. She has written a little bit of everything, but got her start writing articles and features for magazines. Karen began writing children's nonfiction in 2001 with Capstone and loves bringing nonfiction to life for kids. Since then, she has worked with several publishers, including Chicago Review Press and Nomad Press. Karen has more than 30 books published (stopped counting at 30) and stays so busy that she's having trouble returning to her other love, mystery writing. "A Class on Murder" was released in 2012.