From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: *** X-Spam-Status: No, score=3.4 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_50,INVALID_DATE, REPLYTO_WITHOUT_TO_CC autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Xref: utzoo comp.lang.ada:5699 comp.software-eng:6002 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!nstn.ns.ca!news.cs.indiana.edu!att!linac!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!caen!spool.mu.edu!cs.umn.edu!uc!shamash!hare.udev.cdc.com!brh From: brh@hare.udev.cdc.com (brian r hanson x6062) Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.software-eng Subject: Re: Reserve Demobilization System Built Around Reused Ada Code Message-ID: <34212@shamash.cdc.com> Date: 17 Jun 91 17:49:43 GMT References: <1991Jun11.062703.15671@netcom.COM> <1991Jun15.002253.10735@netcom.COM> <1991Jun15.232014.1207@weyrich.UUCP> Sender: usenet@shamash.cdc.com Reply-To: brh@hare.udev.cdc.com (brian r hanson x6062) Followup-To: comp.lang.ada List-Id: |> I'll try Eli Whitney for $0.02. |> |> Funny thing is that his two contributions to science and technology were |> the guns that made the Civil War so bloody, and the cotton gin that made |> using slave labor so cost-ineffective that slavery would have passed away |> of its own accord if given just a little more time. :-(. According to a book I have just been reading, you are wrong. Eli Whitney was not the first to have the idea of building bunches of identical parts and manufacturing stuff by putting together these parts. It was used in europe some years earlier. It also seems that his parts were not very identical but he did manage to obtain quite a lot of money from the government for this. Eli also did not invent the cotton gin but made an improvement to an existing gin to get it to work with the american cotton plants which was in turn made workable by yet another person. Finally, the connection between the cotton gin and the deepening of slavery is also not quite so clear cut according to this book. Out side the deep south the number of slaves per farm was lower in the years after the gin was introduced. Brian Hanson