WHITNEY, ELI American inventor, was born on a farm in Westboro (Mass.), on Dec. 8, 1765. He exhibited unusual mechanical ability at an early age and earned a consider able part of his expenses at Yale college, where he graduated in 1792. He soon went to Savannah (Ga.), and accepted the invita tion of Mrs. Nathanael Greene, the widow of the revolutionary general, to spend some time on her plantation on the Savannah river, while deciding upon his future course. The construction by Whitney of several ingenious household contrivances led Mrs. Greene to introduce him to some gentlemen who were discussing the desirability of a machine to separate the short staple up land cotton from its seeds. In a few weeks Whitney pro duced 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. The machine was worked by hand and could clean 5o lb. of lint a day. A patent was granted on March 14, 1794. Meanwhile Whitney had formed a partnership
with Phineas Miller, and they built at New Haven (Conn.) a factory for the manufacture of the gins. They were unable to supply the demand for gins, and country blacksmiths con structed many machines. A patent, later annulled, was granted (May 12, 1796) to Hogden Holmes for a gin which substituted circular saws for the spikes. Whitney spent much time and money prosecuting infringements of his patent, and in 1807 its validity was settled. The South Carolina legislature voted $50,000 for the rights for that state, while North Carolina levied a licence tax for five years, from which about $30,000 was realized. Tennessee paid, perhaps, $1o,000. Meanwhile Whitney, disgusted with the struggle, began the manufacture of fire-arms near New Haven (1798) and secured profitable government contracts; he intro duced in this factory division of labour and standardized parts.
See Denison Olmsted, Memoir (1846) ; D. A. Tompkins, Cotton and Cotton Oil (Charlotte, N. C., 1901) ; and W. P. Blake, "Sketch of Eli Whitney," in New Haven Colony Historical Society Papers, vol. v. (1894)