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WHITNEY, ELI (1765-1825)

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 611 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WHITNEY, See also:ELI (1765-1825) , See also:American inventor, was See also:born on a See also:farm in See also:Westboro, See also:Massachusetts, on the 8th of See also:December 1765. He exhibited unusual See also:mechanical ability at an See also:early See also:age and earned a considerable See also:part of his expenses at Yale See also:College, where he graduated in 1792. He soon went to See also:Savannah, See also:Georgia, expecting to secure a position as a teacher, but was disappointed, and accepted the invitation of Mrs See also:Nathanael See also:Greene, the widow of the Revolutionary See also:general, to spend some See also:time on her See also:plantation on the Savannah See also:river, while deciding upon his future course. The construction by Whitney of several ingenious See also:household contrivances led Mrs Greene to introduce him to some gentlemen who were discussing the desirability of a See also:machine to See also:separate the See also:short See also:staple upland See also:cotton from its seeds, See also:work which was then done by See also:hand at the See also:rate of a See also:pound of See also:lint a See also:day. In a few See also:weeks Whitney produced a See also:model, consisting of a wooden See also:cylinder encircled by rows of slender spikes set See also:half an See also: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 See also:brush cleaned the spikes, and the See also:seed See also:fell into another compartment. The machine was worked by hand and could clean 50 lb of lint a day. The model seems to have been stolen, but another was constructed and a patent was granted on the 14th of See also:March 1794. Meanwhile Whitney had formed a See also:partnership with Phineas See also:Miller (who afterward married Mrs Greene), and they built at New Haven, See also:Connecticut, a factory (burned in March 1795) for the manufacture of the gins. The partners intended to establish an See also:absolute See also:monopoly and to See also:charge a See also:toll of one-third of the cotton or to buy the whole See also:crop. They were unable to See also:supply the demand for gins, and See also:country blacksmiths constructed many See also:machines. A patent, later annulled, was granted (May 12, 1796) to Hogden See also:Holmes for a See also:gin which substituted circular saws for the spikes. Whitney spent much time and See also:money prosecuting infringements of his patent, and in 1807 its validity was finally settled.

The See also:

financial returns in Georgia cannot be ascertained. The legislature of See also:South Carolina voted $50,000 for the rights for that See also:state, while See also:North Carolina levied a license tax for five years, from which about $3o,000 was realized. See also:Tennessee paid, perhaps, $10,000.1 Meanwhile Whitney, disgusted with the struggle, began the manufacture of See also:fire-arms near New Haven (1798) and secured profitable See also:government contracts; he introduced in this factory See also:division of labour and standardized parts. Although the See also:modern gin has been much enlarged and improved, the essential features are the same as in Whitney's first model, and the invention profoundly influenced American See also:industrial, economic and social See also:history. See See also:Denison See also:Olmsted, Memoir (New Haven, 1846) ; D. A. See also:Tompkins, Cotton and Cotton Oil (See also:Charlotte, N.C., 1901) ; and W. P. See also:Blake, " See also:Sketch of Eli Whitney " in New Haven See also:Colony See also:Historical Society, Papers, vol. v. (New Haven, 1894).

End of Article: WHITNEY, ELI (1765-1825)

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