ELI WHITNEY AND THE COTTON-GIN.
By Harper's Young People
ELI WHITNEY at first intended to adopt teaching as his profession. His heart was wrapped up in mechanics, but he was poor, and could see no way in which he could follow his natural bent. Not long after graduating, therefore, he accepted an engagement as a tutor in the family of a gentleman who lived in Georgia. It was a fortunate accident that, while on his way to the South, young Whitney made the acquaintance of the widow of the famous Revolutionary hero, General Nathaniel Greene. This lady, who lived near Savannah, at once took a liking to him, and on their arrival in Georgia invited him to stay for a while at her home. This was all the more agreeable as Whitney found, to his disappointment, that the gentleman who had engaged him had selected another tutor. Mrs. Greene kindly cheered him, and told him to make her house his home. Thus left without the employment which had been promised him, Whitney again turned his attention to his first love, mechanics. It happened that an occasion soon arose when he was able to show his generous hostess and friend how skillful he was in mechanical devices. The good lady was fond of embroidery, but found that the tambour, or frame upon which she did her delicate work, was not well fitted for that purpose. Whitney eagerly assured her that he could make her a frame that would serve her much better. He set cheerfully to work, and had soon completed a frame far superior to the old one. This proof of his inventive talent greatly impressed Mrs. Greene, and soon opened to the young man the grand opportunity of his life. It was not long after that Mrs Greene entertained a number of her husband's old army friends at Mulberry Grove, her home. One day the conversation happened to turn upon the cotton production of the Southern States. One of the officers remarked that cotton could be easily raised all through the South, but that so long as it required so much labor to separate the cotton from its seed, the cotton crop could not be made a profitable one. If any device could be found, he added, by which the cotton could be easily cleaned, the production of cotton would become an enormously paying industry. "Gentlemen," said Mrs. Greene, who was listening intently to the talk, "tell this to my young friend, Mr. Whitney. I verily believe he can make anything." Now Whitney had never seen a piece of cotton in his life; none the less he promptly made up his mind that he would devote his every energy to solving the problem thus put to him. He first examined some cotton, and saw at once what the task was he had to perform. He had no tools with which to begin his work, but he sturdily set about making some. In less than ten days he had completed his first model of a cotton-cleaning machine. He was delighted with its success, and went on improving it by every device he could think of. In two or three months he had perfected a perfectly practicable working cotton-gin. It was speedily proved that this machine, which could be worked by a single man or woman, could clean more cotton in a single day than could be done by a man or woman, in the old manual method, in several months. The immense utility of the cotton-gin was at once recognized throughout the South; and now Whitney suffered, as so many inventors have suffered before him, from the dishonesty of greedy money-makers. The building in which his cotton-gin was kept was broken into, and the cotton-gin taken away. It was at once copied, and put into use in various places before he could get his patent. The fruits of his great invention were thus stolen from him. Although he got several patents, he never grew rich, as so many Southern planters did by the use of his machine. In vain he petitioned Congress for redress and compensation. The inventor of the cotton-gin, by which he undoubtedly created the wealth and power of nearly every Southern State, lived and died almost in a state of poverty. But his was a patient and heroic spirit. He bore the injustice of men and the ingratitude of his country with cheerful serenity, and died assured at least of a deathless fame, with his name enrolled high up on the list of America's greatest inventors.