то есть Уитни

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то есть Уитни
Уитни в 1822 году
Рожденный	8 декабря 1765 г. ( 1765-12-08 ) Вестборо , провинция Массачусетс-Бэй , Британская Америка
Умер	8 января 1825 г. ( 1825-01-09 ) (59 лет) Нью-Хейвен, Коннектикут , США
Образование	Йельский колледж
Занятие	Инженер
Дети	4
Родители)	Эли Уитни, Элизабет Фэй
Родственники	Семья Уитни
Инженерная карьера
Проекты	Взаимозаменяемые детали , хлопкоочистительная машина
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Эли Уитни-младший (8 декабря 1765 – 8 января 1825) был американским изобретателем, широко известным изобретением хлопкоочистительной машины в 1793 году, одного из ключевых изобретений промышленной революции , которая сформировала экономику довоенного Юга .

Изобретение Уитни превратило горный короткий хлопок в прибыльную культуру, что укрепило экономическую основу рабства в Соединенных Штатах и ​​​​продлило срок существования этого института. Несмотря на социальные и экономические последствия своего изобретения, Уитни потерял большую часть своей прибыли в судебных баталиях по поводу нарушения патентных прав на хлопкоочистительную машину. После этого он сосредоточил свое внимание на заключении контрактов с правительством на производство мушкетов для недавно сформированной армии Соединенных Штатов. Он продолжал делать оружие и изобретать до своей смерти в 1825 году.

Ранняя жизнь и образование

Герб Эли Уитни

Уитни родилась в Вестборо , штат Массачусетс , 8 декабря 1765 года и была старшим ребенком Эли Уитни-старшего, преуспевающего фермера, и его жены Элизабет Фэй, также из Вестборо.

Младший Эли при жизни и после смерти был известен под именем «Эли Уитни», хотя формально он был Эли Уитни-младший. Его сын, родившийся в 1820 году, также по имени Эли, был известен при жизни, а затем под именем «Эли Уитни». Эли Уитни-младший».

Мать Уитни, Элизабет Фэй, умерла в 1777 году, когда ему было 11 лет. В 14 лет он управлял прибыльным предприятием по производству гвоздей в мастерской своего отца во время Войны за независимость .

Поскольку его мачеха была против его желания поступить в колледж, Уитни работала на ферме и школьной учительницей, чтобы сэкономить деньги. Он готовился к Йельскому университету в Лестерской академии (ныне Беккер-колледж ) и под опекой преподобного Элизура Гудрича из Дарема, штат Коннектикут , поступил осенью 1789 года и окончил Фи Бета Каппа в 1792 году. Уитни собирался изучать право, но, столкнувшись с нехваткой средств, принял предложение поехать в Южную Каролину в качестве частного репетитора.

Петиция Уитни к депутатам Вестборо, штат Массачусетс, с просьбой открыть государственную школу с образцом его почерка.

Вместо того, чтобы добраться до пункта назначения, его убедили посетить Грузию. В последние годы XVIII века Джорджия была магнитом для жителей Новой Англии, ищущих счастья (ее губернатором в эпоху революции был Лайман Холл , мигрант из Коннектикута). Когда он впервые отплыл в Южную Каролину, среди его товарищей по кораблю были вдова ( Кэтрин Литтлфилд Грин ) и семья героя-революционера генерала Натаниэля Грина из Род-Айленда. Миссис Грин пригласила Уитни посетить ее плантацию в Джорджии, Малберри Гроув . Управляющим ее плантации и будущим мужем был Финеас Миллер, еще один мигрант из Коннектикута и выпускник Йельского университета (выпуск 1785 года), который впоследствии стал деловым партнером Уитни.

Карьера

Уитни наиболее известен двумя инновациями, которые оказали значительное влияние на Соединенные Штаты в середине 19 века: хлопкоочистительной машиной (1793 г.) и его пропагандой взаимозаменяемых частей . На Юге хлопкоочистительная машина произвела революцию в способах сбора хлопка и возродила рабство. И наоборот, на Севере внедрение взаимозаменяемых деталей произвело революцию в обрабатывающей промышленности, что во многом способствовало победе США в Гражданской войне .

Хлопковый джин

Основная статья: Коттон-джин

"First cotton gin" from Harpers Weekly. 1869 illustration depicting event of some 70 years earlier.

Cotton Gin Patent. It shows sawtooth gin blades, which were not part of Whitney's original patent.

A cotton gin on display at the Eli Whitney Museum.

The cotton gin is a mechanical device that removes the seeds from cotton, a process that had previously been extremely labor-intensive. The word gin is short for engine. While staying at Mulberry Grove, Whitney constructed several ingenious household devices which led Mrs Greene to introduce him to some businessmen who were discussing the desirability of a machine to separate the short staple upland cotton from its seeds, work that was then done by hand at the rate of a pound of lint a day. In a few weeks Whitney produced a model. The cotton gin was a wooden drum stuck with hooks that pulled the cotton fibers through a mesh. The cotton seeds would not fit through the mesh and fell outside. Whitney occasionally told a story wherein he was pondering an improved method of seeding the cotton when he was inspired by observing a cat attempting to pull a chicken through a fence, and able to only pull through some of the feathers.

A single cotton gin could generate up to 55 pounds (25 kg) of cleaned cotton daily. This contributed to the economic development of the Southern United States, a prime cotton growing area; some historians believe that this invention allowed for the African slavery system in the Southern United States to become more sustainable at a critical point in its development.

Whitney applied for the patent for his cotton gin on October 28, 1793, and received the patent (later numbered as X72) on March 14, 1794, but it was not validated until 1807. Whitney and his partner, Miller, did not intend to sell the gins. Rather, like the proprietors of grist and sawmills, they expected to charge farmers for cleaning their cotton – two-fifths of the value, paid in cotton. Resentment at this scheme, the mechanical simplicity of the device and the primitive state of patent law, made infringement inevitable. Whitney and Miller could not build enough gins to meet demand, so gins from other makers found ready sale. Ultimately, patent infringement lawsuits consumed the profits (one patent, later annulled, was granted in 1796 to Hogden Holmes for a gin which substituted circular saws for the spikes) and their cotton gin company went out of business in 1797. One oft-overlooked point is that there were drawbacks to Whitney's first design. There is significant evidence that the design flaws were solved by his sponsor, Mrs. Greene, but Whitney gave her no public credit or recognition.

After validation of the patent, the legislature of South Carolina voted $50,000 for the rights for that state, while North Carolina levied a license tax for five years, from which about $30,000 was realized. There is a claim that Tennessee paid about $10,000.

While the cotton gin did not earn Whitney the fortune he had hoped for, it did give him fame. It has been argued by some historians that Whitney's cotton gin was an important if unintended cause of the American Civil War. After Whitney's invention, the plantation slavery industry was rejuvenated, eventually culminating in the Civil War.

The cotton gin transformed Southern agriculture and the national economy. Southern cotton found ready markets in Europe and in the burgeoning textile mills of New England. Cotton exports from the U.S. boomed after the cotton gin's appearance – from less than 500,000 pounds (230,000 kg) in 1793 to 93 million pounds (42,000,000 kg) by 1810. Cotton was a staple that could be stored for long periods and shipped long distances, unlike most agricultural products. It became the U.S.'s chief export, representing over half the value of U.S. exports from 1820 to 1860.

Whitney believed that his cotton gin would reduce the demand for enslaved labor and would help hasten the end of southern slavery. Paradoxically, the cotton gin, a labor-saving device, helped preserve and prolong slavery in the United States for another 70 years. Before the 1790s, slave labor was primarily employed in growing rice, tobacco, and indigo, none of which were especially profitable anymore. Neither was cotton, due to the difficulty of seed removal. But with the invention of the gin, growing cotton with slave labor became highly profitable – the chief source of wealth in the American South, and the basis of frontier settlement from Georgia to Texas. "King Cotton" became a dominant economic force, and slavery was sustained as a key institution of Southern society.

Interchangeable parts

Main article: Interchangeable parts

First contract of Eli Whitney as a firearms manufacturer, 1798. Signed by Oliver Wolcott Jr., Secretary of the Treasury.

Eli Whitney has often been incorrectly credited with inventing the idea of interchangeable parts, which he championed for years as a maker of muskets; however, the idea predated Whitney, and Whitney's role in it was one of promotion and popularizing, not invention. Successful implementation of the idea eluded Whitney until near the end of his life, occurring first in others' armories.

Attempts at interchangeability of parts can be traced back as far as the Punic Wars through both archaeological remains of boats now in Museo Archeologico Baglio Anselmi and contemporary written accounts. In modern times the idea developed over decades among many people. An early leader was Jean-Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval, an 18th-century French artillerist who created a fair amount of standardization of artillery pieces, although not true interchangeability of parts. He inspired others, including Honoré Blanc and Louis de Tousard, to work further on the idea, and on shoulder weapons as well as artillery. In the 19th century these efforts produced the "armory system," or American system of manufacturing. Certain other New Englanders, including Captain John H. Hall and Simeon North, arrived at successful interchangeability before Whitney's armory did. The Whitney armory finally succeeded not long after his death in 1825.

The motives behind Whitney's acceptance of a contract to manufacture muskets in 1798 were mostly monetary. By the late 1790s, Whitney was on the verge of bankruptcy and the cotton gin litigation had left him deeply in debt. His New Haven cotton gin factory had burned to the ground, and litigation sapped his remaining resources. The French Revolution had ignited new conflicts between Great Britain, France, and the United States. The new American government, realizing the need to prepare for war, began to rearm. The War Department issued contracts for the manufacture of 10,000 muskets. Whitney, who had never made a gun in his life, obtained a contract in January 1798 to deliver 10,000 to 15,000 muskets in 1800. He had not mentioned interchangeable parts at that time. Ten months later, the Treasury Secretary, Oliver Wolcott Jr., sent him a "foreign pamphlet on arms manufacturing techniques," possibly one of Honoré Blanc's reports, after which Whitney first began to talk about interchangeability.

Whitney's gun factory in 1827

In May 1798, Congress voted for legislation that would use 800,000 dollars in order to pay for small arms and cannons in case war with France erupted. It offered a 5,000 dollar incentive with an additional 5,000 dollars once that money was exhausted for the person that was able to accurately produce arms for the government. Because the cotton gin had not brought Whitney the rewards he believed it promised, he accepted the offer. Although the contract was for one year, Whitney did not deliver the arms until 1809, using multiple excuses for the delay. Recently, historians have found that during 1801–1806, Whitney took the money and headed into South Carolina in order to profit from the cotton gin.

Although Whitney's demonstration of 1801 appeared to show the feasibility of creating interchangeable parts, Merritt Roe Smith concludes that it was "staged" and "duped government authorities" into believing that he had been successful. The charade gained him time and resources toward achieving that goal.

When the government complained that Whitney's price per musket compared unfavorably with those produced in government armories, he was able to calculate an actual price per musket by including fixed costs such as insurance and machinery, which the government had not accounted for. He thus made early contributions to both the concepts of cost accounting, and economic efficiency in manufacturing.

Milling machine

Main article: Milling machine

Machine tool historian Joseph W. Roe credited Whitney with inventing the first milling machine circa 1818. Subsequent work by other historians (Woodbury; Smith; Muir; Battison [cited by Baida]) suggests that Whitney was among a group of contemporaries all developing milling machines at about the same time (1814 to 1818), and that the others were more important to the innovation than Whitney was. (The machine that excited Roe may not have been built until 1825, after Whitney's death.) Therefore, no one person can properly be described as the inventor of the milling machine.

Later life and legacy

Eli Whitney on US Postage Issue of 1940, 1c

South side of Eli Whitney monument in the Grove Street Cemetery, New Haven, Connecticut

Despite his humble origins, Whitney was keenly aware of the value of social and political connections. In building his arms business, he took full advantage of the access that his status as a Yale alumnus gave him to other well-placed graduates, such as Oliver Wolcott Jr., Secretary of the Treasury (class of 1778), and James Hillhouse, a New Haven developer and political leader.

His 1817 marriage to Henrietta Edwards, granddaughter of the famed evangelist Jonathan Edwards, daughter of Pierpont Edwards, head of the Democratic Party in Connecticut, and first cousin of Yale's president, Timothy Dwight, the state's leading Federalist, further tied him to Connecticut's ruling elite. In a business dependent on government contracts, such connections were essential to success.

Whitney died of prostate cancer on January 8, 1825, in New Haven, Connecticut, just a month after his 59th birthday. He left a widow and his four children behind. One of his offspring, Eli Whitney III (known as Eli Whitney Jr.), was instrumental in building New Haven, Connecticut's waterworks. During the course of his illness, he reportedly invented and constructed several devices to mechanically ease his pain.

The Eli Whitney Students Program, Yale University's admissions program for non-traditional students, is named in honor of Whitney, who not only began his studies there when he was 23, but also went on to graduate Phi Beta Kappa in just three years.

See also

• Whitney family
• Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Eli Whitney Museum

Further reading

• Battison, Edwin. (1960). "Eli Whitney and the Milling Machine." Smithsonian Journal of History I.
• Cooper, Carolyn, & Lindsay, Merrill K. (1980). Eli Whitney and the Whitney Armory.
• Whitneyville, CT: Eli Whitney Museum.
• Dexter, Franklin B. (1911). "Eli Whitney." Yale Biographies and Annals, 1792–1805. New York, NY: Henry Holt & Company.
• Hall, Karyl Lee Kibler, & Cooper, Carolyn. (1984). Windows on the Works: Industry on the Eli Whitney Site, 1798–1979.
• Hamden, CT: Eli Whitney Museum
• Hounshell, David A. (1984), From the American System to Mass Production, 1800–1932: The Development of Manufacturing Technology in the United States, Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press, ISBN 978-0-8018-2975-8, LCCN 83016269, OCLC 1104810110
• Lakwete, Angela. (2004). Inventing the Cotton Gin: Machine and Myth in Antebellum America. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Smith, Merritt Roe. 1973. "John H. Hall, Simeon North, and the Milling Machine: The Nature of Innovation among Antebellum Arms Makers." Technology & Culture 14.
• Woodbury, Robert S. (1960). "The Legend of Eli Whitney and Interchangeable Parts." Technology & Culture 1.
• Iles, George (1912). Leading American Inventors. New York: Henry Holt and Company. pp. 75–103.
• McL. Green, Constance – Edited by Oscar Handlin. (1956). Eli Whitney & The Birth of American Technology. Library of American Biography series.
• Roe, Joseph Wickham (1916), English and American Tool Builders, New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, LCCN 16011753. Reprinted by McGraw-Hill, New York and London, 1926 (LCCN 27-24075); and by Lindsay Publications, Inc., Bradley, Illinois (ISBN 978-0-917914-73-7).

External links

• The Eli Whitney Museum
• Eli Whitney Biography on at Whitney Research Group
• Inventor of the Week: Eli Whitney (MIT)
• Entry in New Georgia Encyclopedia Archived April 5, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
• Photograph of house in which the Cotton Gin was invented, Wilkes County, Georgia, ca. 1910
• Texts on Wikisource:
  • "Whitney, Eli". Collier's New Encyclopedia. 1921.
  • "Whitney, Eli". Encyclopedia Americana. 1920.
  • "Whitney, Eli". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 28 (11th ed.). 1911. p. 611.
  • "Whitney, Eli". New International Encyclopedia. 1905.
  • "Whitney, Eli". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. 1889.
  • « Уитни, Эли ». Американская Циклопедия . 1879.
• Письмо Эли Уитни своему отцу об изобретении им хлопкоочистительной машины, 11 сентября 1793 г.
• Письмо Томаса Джефферсона Эли Уитни-младшему относительно его патента на хлопкоочистительную машину, 16 ноября 1793 г.
• Некролог Эли Уитни в журнале Niles Weekly Register, 25 января 1825 г.
• Документы Эли Уитни (MS 554). Рукописи и архивы, Библиотека Йельского университета. [1]