Eli Whitney: The Determined Innovator of the 18th Century

Eli Whitney played an important role during the industrial revolution, and through some challenges, Whitney was able to create one of the greatest innovations of the eighteenth century. Eli Whitney was born during the revolutionary war in 1765, and has had an interest in machines and technology as an early teen. Some of the challenges he faced occurred before Whitney even started building his famous cotton gin. Whitney attended the prestigious Yale University in his twenties, and when graduating at age 27, he was broke. Eli Whitney was able to turn all of his challenges into later accomplishments by staying determined and continuing with his technological advances of creating the cotton gin and later the creation of interchangeable parts with firearms.

Graduating with zero money from Yale, Whitney was faced with a challenge of finding a job. He ventured down south to take

a tutoring job, but once he found out of a decrease in his pay, Whitney re evaluated what he wanted to do. With the Industrial Revolution going on and several other technological advances already happening including the spinning jenny, and the power loom, Eli Whitney decided to create something of his own. Ultimately, this decision to not take the tutoring job led to the famous invention of the cotton gin, which changed the way people lived during this time. The cotton gin is a machine that would separate seeds from cotton fiber. “His innovation had two features, teeth to tear the cotton from its seeds and a slotted iron guard, its slit wide enough to admit the teeth and the cotton fibers caught on them.”(47) This machine could speed up the process of separating seeds dramatically, and can only take one person to manage it. “This machine maybe turned by water or with a horse, with the greatest ease, and one man and a horse will do more than fifty men with the old machines.” (46) This invention became an immediate success because of its efficiency and solved a technological problem that built commerce at this time. This cotton gin was in the long run created because of the challenge Whitney faced with getting a job and earning money after college.
The cotton gin later became a huge problem for Eli Whitney who faced a challenge of patenting the machine. Several other farmers heard of this creation, and decided to try and make one themselves, which caused a huge challenge for Whitney to make money from this machine. “Anyone who saw it could understand its workings: anyone equipped with simple blacksmith’s and carpenter’s tools could build a rough copy.” (49) Although the cotton gin improved the commerce during the early republic, Whitney was still faced with making some money for himself. This machine ended up speeding the process of making cotton, and produced tons of cotton, while Whitney was barely making any profit. The patent ended up expiring before Whitney was able to really make any money, and once again he became faced with having no money and being in debt. This challenge of not being able to patent one of the greatest inventions of the time period, which improved the commerce remarkably, left Eli Whitney struggling again.
Still looking for income, Eli Whitney ventured out to a different profession in building muskets for the United States government.

Immediately, he was faced with making 10,000 muskets in a span of two years for the United States. This proved to be a challenge for Whitney as this task took him upwards of 10 years instead of the original two. He created the idea of interchangeable parts, which changed the way muskets were built. The war with France looked promising in the near future, so Whitney must be able to produce these muskets in time, and had a lot of pressure on him.(100) Although Whitney mainly took this contract from the government to make money, he was satisfied with helping out his government in any way possible. Mainly, he helped by building muskets. “ His imagination had enabled him to see that machines could produce muskets of greater precision than could the most carefully trained hands, and faster than an army of gunsmiths.”(108) Building these muskets with interchangeable parts proved to have a major impact for the United States, and was also one of Whitney’s many

accomplishments.
Clearly it was a time for change during the early republic, and through Whitney’s challenge of making money, he had two important accomplishments. Cotton was the leading import at this time, and after Whitney’s machine of separating the seeds from the cotton, business skyrocketed for cotton production. This had a major impact on society for farmers and production during this time period. Eli Whitney was exceptionally innovative, and was recognized by the United States government to build muskets, which were faster than an army of gunsmiths. Eli Whitney is one of the greatest innovators of the eighteenth century.