A machine said to have paid off the debts of the South, greatly
increased its capital, and trebled the value of its land, was the
invention of Eli Whitney. This machine was the cotton gin. And, like
many another inventor, Whitney was rewarded with ingratitude. He added
hundreds of millions to the wealth of our country, and in return had to
endure humiliation and vexation of body and spirit.
Eli Whitney was born at Westborough, Massachusetts, on December 8,
1765. He early showed great mechanical ability, and by the time he was
twenty-three years old had earned enough money to enable him to enter
Yale. After graduating he went to Savannah, Georgia, with the hope
of becoming a teacher there. He was disappointed in this; but made
the acquaintance of Mrs. Nathanael Greene, widow of the Revolutionary
general, and paid a visit to her plantation.
When he was there some men who were also visiting Mrs. Greene happened
one day to lament the fact that there was no machine for cleaning the
staple cotton of its seeds. This work had to be done by hand and was
very slow. Separating one pound of the clean staple from the seed was a
day’s work for a negro woman.
Suddenly Mrs. Greene turned to them. “Gentlemen,” she said, “apply to
my friend here, Mr. Whitney. He can make anything.” And she showed them
several contrivances the young Northerner had made.
Whitney modestly said that he did not know how successful he would be,
but that he would try. In a few weeks he produced a model, consisting
of a wooden cylinder encircled by rows of slender spikes set half an
inch apart, which extended between the bars of a grid set so closely
together that the seeds could not pass, but the lint was pulled through
by the revolving spikes. A revolving brush cleaned the spikes, and the
seed fell into another compartment. This machine could clean fifty
pounds of cotton a day, as compared with one pound a day cleaned by
hand.
Whitney formed a partnership with Phineas Miller, who later married
Mrs. Greene, and they built a factory at New Haven to make cotton gins.
This place was burned to the ground in March, 1795, and the partners
were plunged into debt. Several infringements of their patent then
appeared to discourage them still more, and it was not until 1807 that
Whitney’s rights were established.
In the meanwhile, however, the inventor became disgusted with the
struggle and began manufacturing firearms for the government. This
proved profitable, and he greatly improved the methods of making arms.
But from the cotton gin he received little revenue.
His last years were the happiest. In 1817 he married Henrietta Edwards,
the youngest daughter of Judge Pierpont Edwards of Connecticut. They
had four children, a son and three daughters. Whitney died in New Haven
on January 8, 1825.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 29, SERIAL No. 29
[Illustration: ROBERT FULTON]
_GREAT AMERICAN INVENTORS_
_Robert Fulton_