Editing Cotton gin (section)

===Munger system gin===
[[File:Nation's Oldest Cotton Gin -- Burton, Texas.jpg|200px|right|thumb|The diesel-powered gin in Burton, Texas is one of the oldest in the United States that still functions.]]
For a decade and a half after the end of the Civil War in 1865, a number of innovative features became widely used for ginning in the United States. They included steam power instead of animal power, an automatic feeder to assure that the gin stand ran smoothly, a condenser to make the clean cotton coming out of the gin easier to handle, and indoor presses so that cotton no longer had to be carried across the gin yard to be baled.<ref>Aiken, Charles S. (April 1973). "The Evolution of Cotton Ginning in the Southeastern United States". Geographical Review. 63 (2): 205.</ref> Then, in 1879, while he was running his father's gin in [[Rutersville, Texas]], [[Robert S. Munger]] invented additional system ginning techniques. Robert and his wife, Mary Collett, later moved to [[Mexia, Texas]], built a system gin, and obtained related patents.<ref> Mann, Sally (2016). Hold still : a memoir with photographs. Little, Brown and Company. pp. 314–317. {{ISBN|978-0-316-24775-7}}.</ref>

The Munger System Ginning Outfit (or system gin) integrated all the ginning operation machinery, thus assuring the cotton would flow through the machines smoothly. Such system gins use air to move cotton from machine to machine.<ref>Atkinson, Edward (June 1, 1880). "Report on the Cotton Manufacturers of the United States". In Department of Interior, Census Office. Report on the Manufacturers of the United States at the Tenth Census. Government Printing Office. pp. 937–984.</ref> Munger's motivation for his inventions included improving employee working conditions in the gin. However, the selling point for most gin owners was the accompanying cost savings while producing cotton both more speedily and of higher quality.<ref>Mann, Sally (2016). Hold still : a memoir with photographs. Little, Brown and Company. p. 318. {{ISBN|978-0-316-24775-7}}.</ref>

By the 1960s, many other advances had been made in ginning machinery, but the manner in which cotton flowed through the gin machinery continued to be the Munger system.<ref>Aiken, Charles S. (April 1973). "The Evolution of Cotton Ginning in the Southeastern United States". Geographical Review. 63 (2): 205–206.</ref>

Economic Historian William H. Phillips referred to the development of system ginning as "The Munger Revolution" in cotton ginning.<ref> Phillips, William (1994). "Making a Business of It: The Evolution of Southern Cotton Gin Patenting, 1831-1890". Agricultural History. 68 (2): 88, 90.</ref> He wrote,

"The Munger innovations were the culmination of what geographer Charles S. Aiken has termed the second ginning revolution, in which the privately owned plantation gins were replaced by large-scale public ginneries. This revolution, in turn, led to a major restructuring of the cotton gin industry, as the small, scattered gin factories and shops of the nineteenth century gave way to a dwindling number of large twentieth-century corporations designing and constructing entire ginning operations."<ref> Phillips, William (1994). "Making a Business of It: The Evolution of Southern Cotton Gin Patenting, 1831-1890". Agricultural History. 68 (2): 85–86.</ref>

One of the few (and perhaps only) examples of a Munger gin left in existence is on display at [[Frogmore Plantation]] in Louisiana.