The Mentor, No. 29, Great American Inventors

The Mentor

“A Wise and Faithful Guide and Friend”

GREAT AMERICAN INVENTORS

By H. ADDINGTON BRUCE

Anyone who reads the history of the United States must be impressed with the supremely important part played by the inventor in the evolution of the nation. The explorer and pioneer, the statesman, diplomat, and soldier,—all these have contributed, and contributed notably, to the upbuilding of the mighty republic of today. But it is beyond dispute that in the long run their efforts would have counted for comparatively little had it not been for the genius of those who have bent their energies to the devising of means for the development of the country’s marvelously rich resources, and have still further added to the national wealth by the creation of unsuspected channels for the profitable employment of human enterprise and labor.

WHITNEY’S ARMORY

In 1798 the inventor of the cotton gin began the manufacture of firearms near New Haven, Connecticut.

It was in the humble workshops of men like Whitney, Fitch, and Fulton that, almost as soon as the independence of the United States had been won by the sword, the foundations were laid for its rise to the standing of a world power. Every invention these men made meant a gain in the nation’s strength, and a wider opening of the door of opportunity to all native-born Americans, and to the constantly increasing host of newcomers from abroad. The American inventors have not simply astonished mankind; they have enhanced the prestige, power, and prosperity of their country.

THE COTTON GIN

BIRTHPLACE OF WHITNEY

In this house in Westborough, Massachusetts, Eli Whitney was born on December 8, 1765.

Take, for example, the results that have flowed from a single invention, that of the Whitney cotton gin. When the young Yankee schoolmaster and law student, Eli Whitney, was graduated from Yale and settled in Georgia in 1792, the production of cotton in the Southern States was insignificant. At that time, indeed, cotton was grown by the Southerners chiefly for decorative effect in gardens, because of its handsome flowers. Its cultivation for commercial purposes was virtually out of the question, owing to the fact that no means were available for economically separating the lint from the seed. This had to be done by hand, and since it took ten hours for a quick worker to separate one pound of lint from its three pounds of seed no adequate returns could be had.

What was needed, as his southern friends pointed out to Whitney, was the invention of some apparatus for performing the work of separation cleanly and quickly. The problem was one that appealed to him with peculiar force. Even as a boy in Massachusetts he had been fond of tinkering with