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1 Whitney, Eli
[br]b. 8 December 1765 Westborough, Massachusetts, USAd. 8 January 1825 New Haven, Connecticut, USA[br]American inventor of the cotton gin and manufacturer of firearms.[br]The son of a prosperous farmer, Eli Whitney as a teenager showed more interest in mechanics than school work. At the age of 15 he began an enterprise business manufacturing nails in his father's workshop, even having to hire help to fulfil his orders. He later determined to acquire a university education and, his father having declined to provide funds, he taught at local schools to obtain the means to attend Leicester Academy, Massachusetts, in preparation for his entry to Yale in 1789. He graduated in 1792 and then decided to study law. He accepted a position in Georgia as a tutor that would have given him time for study; this post did not materialize, but on his journey south he met General Nathanael Greene's widow and the manager of her plantations, Phineas Miller (1764–1803). A feature of agriculture in the southern states was that the land was unsuitable for long-staple cotton but could yield large crops of green-seed cotton. Green-seed cotton was difficult to separate from its seed, and when Whitney learned of the problem in 1793 he quickly devised a machine known as the cotton gin, which provided an effective solution. He formed a partnership with Miller to manufacture the gin and in 1794 obtained a patent. This invention made possible the extraordinary growth of the cotton industry in the United States, but the patent was widely infringed and it was not until 1807, after amendment of the patent laws, that Whitney was able to obtain a favourable decision in the courts and some financial return.In 1798 Whitney was in financial difficulties following the failure of the initial legal action against infringement of the cotton gin patent, but in that year he obtained a government contract to supply 10,000 muskets within two years with generous advance payments. He built a factory at New Haven, Connecticut, and proposed to use a new method of manufacture, perhaps the first application of the system of interchangeable parts. He failed to supply the firearms in the specified time, and in fact the first 500 guns were not delivered until 1801 and the full contract was not completed until 1809.In 1812 Whitney made application for a renewal of his cotton gin patent, but this was refused. In the same year, however, he obtained a second contract from the Government for 15,000 firearms and a similar one from New York State which ensured the success of his business.[br]Further ReadingJ.Mirsky and A.Nevins, 1952, The World of Eli Whitney, New York (a good biography). P.J.Federico, 1960, "Records of Eli Whitney's cotton gin patent", Technology and Culture 1: 168–76 (for details of the cotton gin patent).R.S.Woodbury, 1960, The legend of Eli Whitney and interchangeable parts', Technology and Culture 1:235–53 (challenges the traditional view of Eli Whitney as the sole originator of the "American" system of manufacture).See also Technology and Culture 14(1973):592–8; 18(1977):146–8; 19(1978):609–11.RTS -
2 Whitney
m.Whitney, Eli Whitney. -
3 Whitney, Amos
[br]b. 8 October 1832 Biddeford, Maine, USAd. 5 August 1920 Poland Springs, Maine, USA[br]American mechanical engineer and machine-tool manufacturer.[br]Amos Whitney was a member of the same distinguished family as Eli Whitney. His father was a locksmith and machinist and he was apprenticed at the age of 14 to the Essex Machine Company of Lawrence, Massachusetts. In 1850 both he and his father were working at the Colt Armory in Hartford, Connecticut, where he first met his future partner, F.A. Pratt. They both subsequently moved to the Phoenix Iron Works, also at Hartford, and in 1860 they started in a small way doing machine work on their own account. In 1862 they took a third partner, Monroe Stannard, and enlarged their workshop. The business continued to expand, but Pratt and Whitney remained at the Phoenix Iron Works until 1864 and in the following year they built their first new factory. The Pratt \& Whitney Company was incorporated in 1869 with a capital of $350,000, Amos Whitney being appointed General Superintendent. The firm specialized in making machine tools and tools particularly for the armament industry. Pratt \& Whitney was one of the leading firms developing the system of interchangeable manufacture which led to the need to establish national standards of measurement. The Rogers-Bond Comparator, developed with the backing of Pratt \& Whitney, played an important part in the establishment of these standards, which formed the basis of the gauges of many various types made by the firm.Amos Whitney was made Vice-President of Pratt \& Whitney Company in 1893 and was President from 1898 until 1901, when the company was acquired by the Niles- Bement-Pond Company: he then remained as one of the directors. He was elected a Member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1913.[br]Further ReadingJ.W.Roe, 1916, English and American Tool Builders, New Haven; reprinted 1926, New York, and 1987, Bradley, Ill. (describes the origin and development of the Pratt \& Whitney Company).RTS -
4 Weapons and armour
See also: INDEX BY SUBJECT AREA[br]Armstrong, Sir William GeorgeCtesibius of AlexandriaZeng Gonglian -
5 Textiles
See also: INDEX BY SUBJECT AREA[br]Dore, Samuel GriswoldHeilmann, JosuéLevers, JohnLister, Samuel CunliffeMa JunSong Yingxing -
6 Gin
A cotton cleaning machine. The saw gin was invented by Eli Whitney in 1792 and has greatly assisted in the development of cotton growing in America (see Ginning) -
7 Ginning
The object of ginning is to remove the seed from the cotton with as little damage to the fibres as possible. The fibres cling to the seed very tenaciously and their removal is necessarily rough and violent, causing much broken and damaged fibre. Two kinds of gins are used, known as the "saw gin" and the "roller gin." The saw gin is best suited for short-staple cotton, while the roller gin is used for both short and long staples. Eli Whitney invented the saw gin in 1792 and the invention was a principal factor in the growth of the American cotton industry. Prior to its introduction no one could remove the fibre from seed at a greater speed than 6-lb. or 7-lb. per week - A modern power gin can handle over 5,000-lb. of seed cotton per day. The roller or Macarthy gin is not so rough with the cotton as the saw gin; it is more efficient but not so productive. -
8 Colt, Samuel
SUBJECT AREA: Weapons and armour[br]b. 19 July 1814 Hartford, Connecticut, USAd. 10 January 1862 Hartford, Connecticut, USA[br]American inventor of the revolver.[br]The son of a textile manufacturer, as a youth Colt displayed an interest in chemistry, largely through bleaching and dyeing processes used in his father's business, and lectured to lay audiences on it. In 1832 he took ship as a deckhand on a voyage to India; the concept of the revolver is supposed to have come to him from watching the ship's wheel.Upon his return to the USA he described the idea to the US Patent Office, but did not register it until four years later, having taken out patents in Britain and France during a visit to Europe in 1835. He formed a company to manufacture his invention, but it failed in 1842. Even so, note had been taken of his weapon, and in 1846, upon the outbreak of the war with Mexico, the US Government placed an order for his revolver that was executed by the Eli Whitney arms factory in his native Hartford. Thereafter Colt set up another company, this time successfully. He also took an interest in other fields, experimenting with a submarine battery and electrically detonated mines, and opened a submarine telegraph between New York and Coney Island in 1843.CM -
9 North, Simeon
SUBJECT AREA: Weapons and armour[br]b. 13 July 1765 Berlin, Connecticut, USAd. 25 August 1852 Middletown, Connecticut, USA[br]American manufacturer of small arms.[br]Like his father and grandfather, Simeon North began his working life as a farmer. In 1795 he started a business making scythes in an old mill adjoining his farm. He had apparently already been making some pistols for sale, and in March 1799 he secured his first government contract, for 500 horse-pistols to be delivered within one year. This was followed by further contracts for 1,500 in 1800, 2,000 in 1802, and others; by 1813 he had supplied at least 10,000 pistols and was employing forty or fifty men. In a contract for 20,000 pistols in 1813 there was a provision, which North himself recommended, that parts should be interchangeable. It is probable that he had employed the concept of interchangeability at least as early as his more famous contemporary Eli Whitney. To meet this contract he established a new factory at Middletown, Connecticut, but his original works at Berlin continued to be used until 1843. His last government order for pistols was in 1828, but from 1823 he obtained a series of contracts for rifles and carbines, with the last (1850) being completed in 1853, after his death. In developing machine tools to carry out these contracts, North was responsible for what was probably the earliest milling machine, albeit in a relatively primitive form, c. 1816 or even as early as 1808. In 1811 he was elected Lieutenant-Colonel of the 6th Connecticut Regiment; although he resigned after only two years, he was generally known thereafter as Colonel North.[br]Further ReadingS.N.D.North and R.H.North, 1913, Simeon North: First Official Pistol Maker of the United States, Concord, NH (the fullest account).J.W.Roe, 1916, English and American Tool Builders, New Haven; reprinted 1926, New York, and 1987, Bradley, 111.Merrit Roe Smith, 1973, "John H.Hall, Simeon North, and the milling machine: the nature of innovation among antebellum arms makers", Technology and Culture 14:573–91.RTS
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Whitney, Eli — born Dec. 8, 1765, Westboro, Mass., U.S. died Jan. 8, 1825, New Haven, Conn. U.S. inventor, engineer, and manufacturer. He is best remembered as the inventor of the cotton gin (1793), which led to greatly increased production of the short staple… … Universalium
Whitney, Eli — (1765 1825) Born in Westborough, Massachusetts, the son of a farmer, Whitney graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Yale College in 1792. In 1793, he invented a mechanical device that separated seeds from cotton until his invention, this was an arduous … Historical Dictionary of the Fashion Industry
Whitney,Eli — Whit·ney (hwĭtʹnē, wĭtʹ ), Eli. 1765 1825. American inventor and manufacturer whose invention of the cotton gin (1793) revolutionized the cotton industry. He also established the first factory to assemble muskets with interchangeable parts,… … Universalium
Whitney, Eli — (8 dic. 1765, Westboro, Mass., EE.UU.–8 ene. 1825, New Haven, Conn.). Inventor, ingeniero y fabricante estadounidense. Se lo recuerda principalmente por su invención de la desmotadora de algodón (1793), la que permitió aumentar la producción de… … Enciclopedia Universal
WHITNEY, ELI — an American inventor, born in Massachusetts; invented the cotton gin, a machine for cleaning seed cotton, and became a manufacturer of firearms, by which he realised a large fortune (1765 1825) … The Nuttall Encyclopaedia
Eli Whitney — Éli Whitney Pour l’article homonyme, voir Whitney. Eli Whitney Eli Whitney (8 décembre … Wikipédia en Français
Eli whitney — Éli Whitney Pour l’article homonyme, voir Whitney. Eli Whitney Eli Whitney (8 décembre … Wikipédia en Français
Eli Whitney — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Eli Whitney (8 de diciembre de 1765 8 de enero de 1825) fue un inventor y fabricante estadounidense. Inventó la máquina para desgranar el algodón en 1793. Esta máquina era una unidad mecánica que separaba las… … Wikipedia Español
Whitney — Whitney, William Dwight ► Monte del SO de E.U.A., en el estado de California, pico culminante de Sierra Nevada; 4 418 m. * * * (as used in expressions) Morrow, Dwight W(hitney) Whitney, Amos Whitney, Eli Whitney, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, John … Enciclopedia Universal
Eli Whitney, Jr. — Infobox Engineer image width = caption = name = Eli Whitney nationality = American birth date = December 8, 1765 birth place = Westborough, Massachusetts death date = January 8, 1825 death place = education = spouse = parents = children =… … Wikipedia
Éli Whitney — Pour l’article homonyme, voir Whitney. Eli Whitney Eli Whitney (8 décembre 1765 – 8 ja … Wikipédia en Français