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The cotton gin was invented in 1793, and saved slavery. Prior to Eli Whitney, cotton was a marginal crop. A cheap and fast way of processing the fiber, together with the almost simultaneous invention of the spinning mill (1789), created a market for all the cotton the South could grow. The way they grew it was by hundreds of thousands of slave field hands. Mechanical prototypes appeared throughout the late 1930s and early 1940s, but Allis Chalmers put the first mechanical picker into mass production in 1949. Slavery would have continued to be very profitable for another 85 years. The only way to end slavery was the way it happened.
There have been threads here debating slavery from a survivalist perspective. However, this is thepopcorn thread.
You are right Larry, the cotton gin made it profitable and the Rust broters invented the cotton picker. However, you are incorrect about the invention of the spinning wheel. I happen to have one. The spinning wheel was invented in India between 500 and 1000 BC. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinning_wheel
Not the spinning wheel, the spinning mill, aka the Spinning Jenny. No more spinning wheels. Machines could make thread cheaper and more uniformly. It was invented just a few years before the cotton gin.
Here's something interesting. It's a tasty substitute for macaroni and cheese that does not require baking. Just make your favorite cheese sauce in a large and heavy saucepan. Watch the heat carefully lest you scorch the sauce. Now, start adding cooked popcorn until you have a nice flavor mix. I started out with just a few popped corns and gradually added more. I added a small jar of drained chopped pimentos as well. The result was something different from macaroni and cheese but not unwelcome. I will have it again—I will not, however give up macaroni.
I always use Velveeta Original for macaroni and cheese with about 10% by volume of added cream cheese, full fat to be sure. Provolone or Mozzarella in much smaller amounts are interesting as well.
Popcorn is much more compact than elbows so takes up less storage space. Velveeta requires no refrigeration until opened. Cream cheese and other regular cheeses do require refrigeration, but they keep well. Butter will store fine for a year if frozen. There is liquid milk now that stores at room temperature for several months. What more could anyone ask?
We need to start discussions of foods that store well for a few months. Variety, flavor, and nutrition are near perfect. This will exclude fresh fruits and vegetables but little else. Besides, grocery stores haven't had problems getting them since the advent of refrigerated rail cars—and that's a long, long time ago. We had them in 1880. They not only brought produce north and east; they brought fresh oysters to western gold miners.
I store my cheese by having a milk cow. She is a very tame cow that can also be used for draft. Without refrigeration the day's production would have to be eaten up. Although you have to curdle milk and let it set at room temperature for 24 hours to make some kinds of cheese. Cheeses are kept in a press for several days without refrigeration. There must be some way to keep cheese besides Velveta.
Larry, this is the first sentance of the spinning wheel wikipedia article I quoted
A spinning wheel is a device for spinning thread or yarn from natural or synthetic fibres. Spinning wheels were first used in India, between 500 and 1000 C.E.[2] Spinning machinery, such as the spinning jenny and spinning frame, displaced the spinning wheel during the Industrial Revolution.
See also--https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_spinning
I just thought of a cheese that can be kept without refrigeration. Feta cheese. Its kept in salt water brine. Well sure, people have been making and keeping cheese for thousands of years. Here is a quote I found
"They make a great many cheeses; it is a pity they are so salty. I saw great warehouses full of them, some in which the brine, or salmoria as we would say was two feet deep, and the large cheeses were floating in it. Those in charge told me that the cheeses could not be preserved in any other way, being so rich. They do not know how to make butter. They sell a great quantity to the ships that call there: it was astonishing to see the number of cheeses taken on board our own galley."
Pietro Casola, 15th-century Italian traveler to Crete[8]
I store my cheese by having a milk cow. She is a very tame cow that can also be used for draft. Without refrigeration the day's production would have to be eaten up. Although you have to curdle milk and let it set at room temperature for 24 hours to make some kinds of cheese. Cheeses are kept in a press for several days without refrigeration. There must be some way to keep cheese besides Velveta.
Hard cheeses can be dipped in wax and keep pretty well in a dark dry place. Some develop a rind that protect the cheese. Many varieties of cheese came about because of different storage methods.
The introducing an acid like vinegar would produce curds that could be strained from the liquid, mixed with salt and stored in a cellar or other cool place makes a kind of soft cheese or yogurt that can keep for some time. Lots of options, lots of different cheeses for different tastes.
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