On Jul 4, 3:25 pm, David Johnston block.net> wrote:

But Whitney did not "invent" the cotton gin

There is slight controversy over whether the idea of the cotton gin
and its constituent elements are correctly attributed to Eli Whitney.
The popular version of Whitney inventing the cotton gin is attributed
to an article on the subject in the early 1870s and later reprinted in
1910 in the The Library of Southern Literature. In this article
Andrews mentioned how Catherine Littlefield Greene suggested to
Whitney the use of a brush-like component instrumental to separate out
the seeds and cotton. Historians later explored this idea, and some
consider that Catherine Littlefield Greene, Whitney's landlady, should
be credited with the invention of the cotton gin, or at least with the
original concept.

Women were not eligible to receive patents in the early U.S., and
Greene may have asked Whitney to obtain it for her. Patent office
records also indicate that the first cotton gin may have been built by
a machinist named Sean Paul two years before Whitney's patent was
filed. Joseph Watkins, who resided near Petersburg, Georgia is
credited by many historians as the first inventor of the cotton gin,
and was using it on his plantation when he was visited by the
frustrated Eli Whitney, who on seeing it went back to Savannah and
soon developed his model which he patented.

Watkins was urged to sue Whitney, but had no desire to engage in a
controversy and never asserted his claim. Watkins was a planter of
large means, who pursued the study and application of mechanics more
for amusement than profit.

While the Watkins story had some romantic adherents, and still others
have credited Hodgson Holmes, later publication of certain of
Whitney's papers, including letters to his family during the invention
process, showed the claims to be lacking foundation.

At least according to Whitney's papers.