Eli Whitney

Eli Whitney (1765–1825) is depicted on the 1-cent Famous American Inventors stamp issued October 7, 1940. Whitney is famous for inventing the cotton gin, a mechanical device for separating cotton seeds from the cotton fibers. The gin replaced time-consuming manual labor, leading to great increase in the efficiency of cotton production. Whitney also introduced the concept of interchangeable parts in rifles, initiating mass production of firearms.