As part of our study on the Industrial Revolution, I like to give my students cotton bolls and have them pick the seeds out of the cotton. This usually takes them awhile and they marvel at how difficult it is to do, and how much easier using Eli Whitney's cotton gin must have been. Next, we roll the cotton into lengths of yarn by hand and discuss the Spinning Jenny. Then I cheat a little and give them balls of yarn which we use to weave on 2 x 4 looms. And to think that nowadays we can just go to the store and buy fabric . . . .
