In this assignment, I will be summarizing two of the cultural events that were discussed this week: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cotton gin.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Mozart was a famous Austrian composer who lived in the 18th century. He is regarded as one of the best composers ever. Let’s dive in to his life and his works:

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born January 27, 1756 in Salzburg, Austria. His father, Leopold Mozart was a famous violinist, and his mother played the harpsichord, so his musical talent clearly ran in his blood!

Mozart was a musician even in his toddler years! At the age of three, he was playing chords on his family’s harpsichord. At four, he started playing short pieces, and at five he was already composing music! He was described as being very gentle and kind yet also outgoing.

Mozart’s father started taking him on tours around the country, where he played for nobility. His sister, Nannerl Mozart was a very talented musician also, and she sometimes went on tours with him.

Mozart continued composing pieces throughout his life. He wrote over 600 pieces in his lifetime, including ones for Benjamin Franklin’s glass harmonica! He married Constanze Weber in 1782. He had six children, but only two survived to adulthood.

Eli Whitney and the Cotton Gin

Eli Whitney was an American inventor best known for inventing the Cotton Gin, although he contributed in other ways to technology.

Eli Whitney was born on December 8, 1765. His father was a farmer who served as justice of the peace. He went to Yale college, where he learned many of his engineering skills.

In the south at that time, there were two types of cotton: green-seed and black-seed. The black-seeded one was easy to clean and separate the seeds, but it could only be grown on the coast, so it wasn’t very popular. The green-seeded variety could grow more widely in the south, but it was very hard to separate the seeds. Whitney noticed this, and he realized that if someone could invent a machine to separate the seeds, they would become very rich.

He started to make a model that had cylinders with nails and brushes on them, so when it was turned, it cleaned the seeds. (This is a simplification, the exact machine is more complex.) He further refined his design, then patented it. This helped revolutionize the cotton plantations, and made work easier for the slaves.

Eli Whitney also invented other things, like a milling machine, but he is best known for the Cotton Gin.