Thread by @historiancole, for science, did you learn anything about eli whitney in school /BESIDES/ [...]

cole

historiancole

for science, did you learn anything about eli whitney in school /BESIDES/ the fact that he patented the cotton gin

i ask because most of his papers are housed at yale & the only biographies i found written about him [that are /not/ childrens books] once i went searching were from 1832 & 1956

i've got two American history textbooks, copyrights 1935 & 1995, and they both mention essentially the same thing [though i was surprised to see 1995 mention interchangeable parts]

this isn't a conversation about textbooks, though it could be, but it's mostly a conversation about how when someone wants to hide something about history, it's surprisingly easy, especially when we have something like the cotton gin to focus on

that's not saying eli whitney hid something but that is to say that he also invented a bunch medical devices to ease his pain from prostrate cancer but since 19th century doctors were so squeamish & his family thought them inappropriate, he was forbidden from describing them

i realize that this is not where people thought this thread was going but i got around to reading the 1832 & 1956 biographies of eli whitney & if his yale papers don't also include the schematics for his medical machines, i'm going to be bummed/furious at dead people. again

You can follow @historiancole.

Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

Latest Threads Unrolled: