Was a machine for removing the seeds in cotton quickly?

Answer 1

Originally people called "cotton pickers" removed the seeds from raw cotton by hand, but this was slow and labor intensive. Eli Whitney invented a machine called the "Cotton Engine" (shortened in common usage to the "Cotton Gin") that removed the seeds from raw cotton quickly and easily. Unfortunately he made no money from this invention as it was so simple that anyone needing one simply made it himself.

The Cotton Gin saved the south's Plantation slave based economy, until the Civil War.

Answer 2

A brush of many closely spaced wire bristles "combs" the raw cotton over and over. The seeds got caught between the wire bristles while the cotton fibers slipped smoothly through. As the brush passed out of the cotton the seeds fell loose from the bristles into a box that collected the seeds. The cleaned cotton fibers would then be removed and more raw cotton inserted.

Without the cotton gin the seeds would have had to be picked out by hand one at a time.

Answer 3

Yes, and they still are. They are used to separate the seeds from the cotton bolls.