Eli Whitney Essay Research Paper Eli WhitneyThe free essay sample

Eli Whitney Essay, Research Paper Eli Whitney The Gin. The Guns. The Legend. By Mike Klage Awards English 11 Mrs. Wiehe Eli? s Early Life Eli Whitney was born in Westborough, Massachusetts, on December 8, 1765, to Eli Sr. and Elizabeth Whitney. ( Whitney ) At the age of 12, Elizabeth dies, go forthing behind Eli and 2 other kids. This combined with holding a stepmother within two old ages of his female parent? s decease greatly effected Eli? s childhood. During the Revolutionary War, Eli started his first occupation. He decided to do nails, due to their demand at the clip. ( Eberius ) This was merely a mark of what was to come in his life. Eli had strong impulses to go to Yale, despite the fact he was non traveling into the professions or divinity or jurisprudence, which the bulk of Yale attendants did at that clip. To pay his manner through Yale, he taught to the side. He struggled those old ages with money, but at the age of 27, Whitney did alumnus. ( He can? ) After graduating, Eli was offered a learning place in South Carolina. On his trip, his ship wrecked, he got smallpox, and he ended up at the plantation of Catherine Greene. This was where it all began. ( Eberius ) The Cotton Gin Up to this point, the lone major hard currency harvests of the South were baccy, rice, and indigo. Equally far as cotton goes, coastal islands grew long staple cotton, and made a nice net income off of it, but the long staple assortment does non turn in the bulk of the South. Short staple cotton was grown, but non in big parts due to its boring cleansing procedure. For every four lbs of cotton works picked, merely one lb would really be cotton fibre, the remainder being seeds. ( Bachman ) This made cotton virtually unpointed to turn from a fiscal position. After being informed about the job, Eli started working on a machine to repair this. It merely took Whitney six months to hold a on the job paradigm. This paradigm cleaned the short basic cotton ten times faster, and did a more thorough occupation of making it, that cleansing by manus. ( Schapsmeier ) Finally, turning cotton had a possibility of being a profitable industry. To get down doing money on his innovation, Whitney applied for a patent, and started the company of Miller and Whitney. ? Miller? was Phineas Miller, the director of the Greene Plantation. The trade was that Whitney would travel back north to New Haven, Connecticut, to get down a mill to do the gins, while Miller stayed in the south to market and put in the gins. ( He can? ) Miller and Whitney had several jobs from the beginning, both in the North and in the South. First, the mill in New Haven burnt down, destructing 20 complete gins and the machinery to do more. In the south, people began to pirate Whitney? s thought when crop clip came about and the gins were non available yet. Once they were available, they became harder to sell, because Miller got caught in a land guess trade, which hurt his ( and likewise the company? s ) repute. There were besides jobs with the provinces acknowledging Whitney? s patent on the gin. Throughout its being, Miller and Whitney struggled with debt and bankruptcy, and finally went under, even though the company? s merely merchandise was one of the greatest innovations of the clip. When all was said and done, Miller and Whitney merely took in about 90,000 dollars, most of which was used to cover tribunal costs and supplies. ( He can? ) This little amount was despite the fact that cotton production in the South jumped from 1 38,000 lbs in 1792, one twelvemonth before the cotton gin, to 17,000,000 lbs in 1800, merely eight old ages subsequently. ( Bachman ) Whitney likely merely earned several thousand dollars for contriving the cotton gin, so the chief thing Eli Whitney gained from the cotton gin was pride, and doing his name known, which will assist him in future old ages. ( Schapsmeier ) Interchangeable Partss After early successes contriving, but major failures when it comes to money ensuing from innovations, Eli started looking for an innovation which would convey in more money. He turned to the United States authorities. Up until this point, guns had to be made one at a clip, by an adept craftsmen. This procedure was long and boring. It required doing each gun one piece at a clip, from stock to barrel. This procedure was so slow, that in three old ages, the federal armory had turned out merely one 1000 guns. ( Eberius ) This was where Whitney came in. He proposed a extremist new thought to mass green goods guns. It was called interchangeable parts. This meant that he would utilize machines to do multiple transcripts of each piece of a gun, all so closely the same that they would all suit together in any combination with any other parts. This served many intents, and solved many jobs at one time. One major job solved was that when a gun was broken in the field, it didn? Ts have to be sent back to a gunsmith to be fixed. The gun could be fixed in no clip at all because they would merely take an excess portion that was already made to suit. This saved clip, and allowed guns to be functional a higher per centum of the clip. Following, it allowed the guns to be made by people other than gunsmiths. The interchangeable parts method divided bring forthing a gun into around one hundred little simple stairss. These stairss could be done by anyone, non merely a gunsmith. This manner, people who were non skille d gunsmiths could do guns that were in fact superior to guns made by maestro craftsmen who had been doing guns for their whole life. ( Bachman ) The biggest ground interchangeable parts were necessary was velocity. After merely one 1000 guns made in the last three old ages, Eli Whitney proposed to do 10 thousand guns in merely 28 months. This is why people about laughed at Whitney for his self-praises. Peoples did non believe guns could be made to such tight tolerances as to be wholly interchangeable, non to advert in that short of a clip frame. Because of Eli Whitney? s repute as being able to make the impossible, and the U.S. authoritiess extreme demand of pieces, they decided to give him a opportunity. ( He can? ) The authorities offered to pay him 134,000 dollars to make full this order. Before Whitney could even get down doing the guns, though, he foremost had to contrive the machines to that would do the guns. Therefore, within the overall innovation of interchangeable parts, he made many other clever innovations to do the interchangeable parts system work. One of the major 1s was the milling machine. This was fundamentally was a round proverb blade that could cut metal to much greater truth than was antecedently able. It took him about a twelvemonth to acquire the machines created, up, and running, and he merely produced five 100 rifles alternatively of four 1000. ( Whitney ) They authorities became disbelieving, but they left their trust in him and kept back uping him, despite these early battles. When all was said and done, it took him eight old ages to do all ten thousand rifles, which wasn? t what he had promised, but still well faster than others before him had been able to do them. Towards the terminal of the eight old ages, production truly sped up. Then in 1811 he received an order for 15 thousand more rifles, which he turned out in merely two old ages. ( He can? ) This proven Whitney had succeeded and that interchangeable, mass produced merchandises were non merely possible, but far superior to currents methods of fabrication. The Later Old ages Eli loved inventing and his work so much, he forgot approximately matrimony until he was 52 old ages old, which was an old adult male in those yearss. On January 6, 1817, Henrietta Edwards became Henrietta Whitney. Whitney ended up holding four kids, dwelling of two male childs and two misss, one of which died at 21 months. ( Eberius ) After merely five old ages of matrimony, Whitney? s wellness started to worsen, due to an hypertrophied prostate secretory organ. Even in his hurting and agony, Whitney was imaginative. After reading everything he could about the prostate and his unwellness, Whitney sent off for supplies from Europe. Eli used these to invent instruments of alleviation for himself, including a catheter, which reduced his agony greatly. ( Eberius ) After three old ages of illness, Whitney? s organic structure eventually gave in. He passed off on January 8, 1825, merely eight old ages after his matrimony. ( Encarta ) Eli? s Effect on Modern Manufacturing The industrial revolution in America started chiefly because of Eli Whitney. It was his thoughts that invented mass production, interchangeable portion, and that laid the seeds for assembly lines. Henry Ford is credited with the assembly line, but he fundamentally merely added a conveyer belt to Whitney? s interchangeable parts thoughts. Try to conceive of how much a auto would be if every one was built by manus by one individual. Ever heard of Rolls Royce? There? s your reply. Merely believe how much your auto would be to repair if every clip something went incorrect with it, you had to hold a new portion built by manus to specially suit your auto. Alternatively, they order a portion that is indistinguishable to the old one, and to the 1 on every other auto like yours. Modern milling equipment all stemmed from Whitney? s original Millers made to mass bring forth his guns. Even the cotton gin is the same in rule today as Whitney? s original versions, merely with excess bells and whis tlings, and now they run on electricity. You will be hard pressed to happen one point in a shop that International Relations and Security Network? t mass produced, or one that uses interchangeable parts. Everything from confect bars to apparels are now mass produced, and every auto, machine, and electronic device is made from interchangeable parts. All of these are the consequence of Eli Whitney? s original thoughts to mass green goods guns with interchangeable parts. Effectss on North and South in Civil War The South received the cotton gin from Whitney. This led to cotton production skyrocketing, side by side with bondage. This graph demonstrates With this big addition in bondage, it increased the spread between the North and the South. Therefore, the cotton gin led in big portion to the sezession of the South, which had far making effects. ( Eberius ) Equally far as the North goes, the new moving ridge of fabricating utilizing interchangeable parts, started by Eli Whitney, caused the North to separated more from the South, because they industrialized exceptionally fast, while the South increased bondage and went nowhere every bit far as industry is concerned. This was how Whitney indirectly sped up the patterned advance to civil war in the United States. Eli Whitney gave the universe more than his portion in his life-time, and decidedly received less than he should hold for his greatest achievements, but Whitney will travel down in the history books as one of the most superb discoverers of the age, and the innovator of the Industrial Revolution. Bachman, Frank. Great discoverers and Their Inventions. New York: American Book Company, 1941. Eberius, Bill. ? Eli Whitney. ? Internet. www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pointe/3048/bio/WHITNEY/eliwhitney.html ? He can do anything. ? Internet. www.eliwhitney.org/ew.htm Schapsmeier, Edward l. ? Cotton Gin. ? Internet. ? Whitney, Eli. ? Microsoft Encarta.