Recasting Reality: Wolfgang Pauli's Philosophical Ideas and Contemporary Science Book

Eli Whitney did far more than invent the cotton gin. He basically invented the machine tool industry in the USA which allowed New England to develop its factories in the first half of the 19th century. The book is easy to read and documents its narrative through letters from and to Whitney to various people. It is interesting to see how his cotton gin was copied and how hard it was for him to have a financial gain from that important machine. You will get a good idea of where the US stood in manufacturing at the end of the 18th century and what effects the cotton gin and machine tool industry meant to our country.