THE COTTON-GIN
Another great invention is the cotton-gin. It is great because of the
commercial prosperity which it brought to the Southern states; because
it cheapened and extended the use of an almost necessary article of
life; and because of its effect on American history. The inventor was
an American, Eli Whitney.
The word _gin_ is an abbreviation of _engine_, and in former days
was often used to denote a handy mechanical device of any kind. The
cotton-gin is a machine for removing the seed from the fiber of the
cotton-plant. Its essential parts are a number of saws which tear the
fiber from the seeds, some stiff brushes used to remove the fiber from
the saws, and a revolving fan which blows the lighter substance of the
cotton away from the saws and brushes. The original cotton-gin has
been little changed by improvement since its invention. It seems to be
one of those inventions which have been perfected by the inventor
himself.
Eli Whitney was born in Westborough, Worcester County, Massachusetts,
December 8, 1765. His father was a thrifty farmer. Nature bestowed upon
the son marked ability in the use of tools. While he was yet a child,
his inventive genius manifested itself. Before he was ten years old, he
could use every tool in the farm workshop with the ease and skill of an
old workman. He made a violin before he was twelve and later he came to
be noted in the neighborhood as a skilful mender of fiddles. He also
turned his attention to making nails, which in Revolutionary days were
made by hand, and became the best nail-maker in Worcester County. When
he was twenty-four years of age, a desire for a college education
possessed him. His father agreed to furnish the money to pay for his
schooling, with the stipulation that the son should pay it back. He
entered Yale, where he was graduated in 1792.
After graduation Whitney went South to act as tutor in a private
family. Upon arrival at his destination, he found that the position was
already filled. At that time the widow of General Nathanael Greene, who
fought in the Revolutionary War, lived near Savannah, Georgia. She had
become interested in young Whitney and invited him to make her
plantation his home. She noted his inventive skill, and one day when a
group of Georgia planters was discussing at her home the desirability
of a machine for removing cotton-seeds from the fiber, Mrs. Greene
said: "Gentlemen, apply to my friend, Mr. Whitney; he can make
anything." Whitney was called in and the planters laid the matter of
the machine before him. At this time he had never even seen cotton
fiber. But he made up his mind to try what he could do toward solving
the problem.
He went to Savannah and searched among the warehouses and flat-boats
for samples of cotton. Mrs. Greene encouraged him in his undertaking
and gave him a room in the basement of her house for his workshop. Here
he shut himself up with his task, and was heard early and late
hammering, sawing, and filing. No one was admitted to the room but Mrs.
Greene and Phineas Miller, the tutor of Mrs. Greene's children. At the
outset Whitney had neither money nor tools. The money was supplied by
an old college friend; the tools Whitney made himself. He could procure
no wire in Savannah for constructing his machine, and was compelled to
make his own, which he did with much perseverance and skill.
In 1793 the gin was sufficiently completed to convince the inventor
that it would be a complete success. Mrs. Greene invited a number of
distinguished planters and merchants to witness the working of the
machine. The spectators were not slow in realizing the success and the
significance of the invention. They saw that with this little machine
one man could separate as much cotton from the seed in one day as he
could separate by hand in a whole winter. With the gin the cotton grown
on a large plantation could be separated in a few days; by hand, the
separation would require a hundred workmen for several months.
One dark night some unscrupulous persons broke open the shed in which
the unfinished machine had been placed and carried it away. Filled with
rage and despair at the wrong which had been done him, Whitney left
Georgia and went to Connecticut to complete his invention. But he had
scarcely left Savannah when two other claimants for the honor of the
invention appeared in Georgia. A few weeks later a gin very closely
resembling Whitney's came out. His stolen gin was doubtless used as a
model by these false claimants.
On March 14, 1794, Whitney received a patent on his gin. Phineas
Miller, who had become the husband of Mrs. Greene, entered into a
partnership with Whitney for managing the new invention. Whitney was to
manufacture the gins in the North and Miller was to furnish the capital
and attend to the interests of the business in the South. They planned
not to sell machines or patent rights, but to make and own the gins,
loaning them to planters for a rental of one pound in every three
pounds of cotton ginned. They would have been wiser if they had
manufactured and sold the machines outright. In the first place, it
required a larger capital than the firm had to manufacture the
necessary number of machines. In the second place, no one firm could
make gins fast enough to supply the rapidly increasing demand, and
consequently great encouragement was given to infringements on the
patent rights. Unending troubles beset the new firm. Whitney himself
was a victim to severe illness in the winter of 1794. Scarlet fever
raged that year in New Haven, Connecticut, where the manufacturing was
being done, and many of the workmen in the gin factory were unable to
work. In 1795 Whitney was again seized with severe sickness, and to add
to the vexations of the business, the books, papers, and machinery were
destroyed by fire. Besides all this, rival claimants circulated a
report that Whitney's gin ruined the fiber of the cotton, and that for
this reason cotton ginned by the patent process was discriminated
against in the markets of England. Another gin which did its work by
crushing the seeds between rollers and leaving the crushed seeds in the
fiber was represented as superior to Whitney's machine.
[Illustration: ELI WHITNEY]
In speaking of his troubles Whitney said: "The difficulties with which
I have had to contend have originated principally in the want of a
disposition in mankind to do justice. My invention was new and distinct
from every other; it stood alone. It was not interwoven with anything
before known; and it can seldom happen that an invention or improvement
is so strongly marked, and can be so clearly and specifically
identified; and I have always believed that I should have had no
difficulty in causing my rights to be respected, if it had been less
valuable and been used only by a small portion of the community. But
the use of this machine being immensely profitable to almost every
planter in the cotton districts, all were interested in trespassing on
the patent right, and each kept the other in countenance.... At one
time but few men in Georgia dared to come into court and testify to the
most simple facts within their knowledge relative to the use of the
machine. In one instance I had great difficulty in proving that the
machine had been used in Georgia, although at the same moment there
were three separate sets of this machinery in motion within fifty yards
of the building in which the court sat, and all so near that the rattle
of the wheels was distinctly heard on the steps of the court house."
Whitney never received fair and proper compensation for his invention.
The machine itself was stolen; others sought to rob him of his honor;
he was opposed by an unlimited train of vexations; and after the
expiration of his patent he was never able to secure a renewal.
The effect of the invention of the cotton-gin was far-reaching,
industrially and historically. In 1807, at a session of the United
States District Court held in Savannah, Georgia, the inventor finally
obtained judgment against the persons who had stolen his invention. In
the opinion rendered in favor of Whitney, Judge Johnson said of the
cotton-gin: "Is there a man who hears us who has not experienced its
utility? The whole interior of the, Southern states was languishing,
and its inhabitants were emigrating for the want of some object to
engage their attention and employ their industry, when the invention of
this machine at once opened new views to them which set the whole
country in active motion. Individuals who were depressed with poverty
and sunk in idleness have suddenly risen to wealth and respectability.
Our debts have been paid off, our capitals have increased, and our
lands have trebled themselves in value. We cannot express the weight of
the obligation the country owes to this invention. The extent of it
cannot now be seen. Some faint presentiment may be formed from the
reflection that cotton is rapidly supplanting wool, flax, silk, and
even furs, in manufactures, and may one day profitably supply the use
of specie in our East India trade. Our sister states also participate
in the benefits of this invention; for besides affording the raw
material for their manufactures, the bulkiness and quantity of the
article afford a valuable employment for their shipping."
In the South "Cotton is king." The rise of the cotton industry dates
from the invention of Eli Whitney's cotton-gin. Before its invention
the labor of removing the seed from the fiber was so tedious that the
growth of the cotton was not profitable. Partly because of this fact
and partly because the Revolutionary War was just over, the South lay
dormant; its plantations were heavily mortgaged, its people were moving
away in streams. Then came a little machine that awoke the South from
its sleep and made it rouse itself. It brought energy, hope, and
prosperity, where before were languor, indifference, and stagnation. It
increased the exportation of American cotton from less than 190,000
pounds in 1791 to 41,000,000 pounds in 1803.
From the historical point of view the invention of the cotton-gin was
tremendous in its influence. This machine multiplied by many times the
demand in the South for slave labor and made slaves far more
profitable. One writer has said of Whitney: "He was, through his
invention, probably one of the most potent agencies for the extension
of slavery and the terrible struggle that marked the first half-century
of our nation's existence. While he was quietly sleeping in his grave,
the very earth was shaken with the tread of contending armies that he
had done more than any other one man to call forth to battle; for there
is little doubt that but for the invention of the cotton-gin slavery
would not have lived out the century of the Revolution." Macaulay says:
"What Peter the Great did to make Russia dominant, Eli Whitney's
invention of the cotton-gin has more than equaled in its relation to
the power and progress of the United States." In the light of the
wonderful, widespread material growth and prosperity that have come to
the whole of our country in recent years, Macaulay's statement is
overdrawn. But as matters were when it was written by the great
Englishman, it was probably true.
Whitney achieved much success as the inventor of improved methods of
manufacturing firearms. He was the first to conceive the plan of making
the different parts of firearms by machinery, so that any part of a
weapon would fit any other like weapon equally well. This principle has
made possible the production of cheap watches, clocks, and sewing
machines. He died in New Haven, Connecticut, January 8, 1825.