Eli Whitney was one of the most influential industrialists and one of the greatest pioneers of the industrial revolution in early American history. He lived in the South for only a few years, but during this time he created an invention that would revolutionize the agricultural industry. The creation of the cotton gin, a machine that could harvest seeds from cotton, breathed new life into the South's dying economy. Whitney was driven into bankruptcy after the patent for his invention was stolen. This, however, did not discourage him. He returned to the North where, under the patronage of the United States government, he changed the very face of the manufacturing industry with his factory that mass-produced firearms. This new manufacturing methodology introduced the revolutionary concept of interchangeable parts. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Whitney was born in Westborough, Massachusetts, on December 8, 1765. He was raised by his parents, Eli, Sr., and Elizabeth. Catastrophe struck when his mother became seriously ill after the birth of her fourth child. He died in 1777. Whitney, Jr., only twelve years old at the time, was the eldest of the children and felt obligated to take care of his younger siblings. Even after her father remarried to a woman named Judith Hazledon, Whitney still carried the burden for her sister and two brothers. The economy in the colonies was in poor shape when the Revolutionary War broke out. During these difficult times, young Eli started his first successful business. He made nails in his father's workshop. Nails were a rare commodity in the United States. Using his tools, he also became one of the few pin makers in the colonies. Whitney began learning the fundamentals of mechanics during his time in his father's shop. As he grew up, he decided to go to college, where an education would allow him to further develop his skills. Due to lack of money, his father could not support his dream. Eli was forced to seek his fortune. Whitney moved to Grafton, Massachusetts, where she found work as a teacher. He spent his free time furthering his education while attending Leicester Academy. During this time he studied for university entrance exams. His efforts were rewarded when he was accepted into Yale University in 1797. At the age of 24 he began higher education and graduated three years later. Whitney was unable to find a position suited to his aspirations, nor his mechanical experience, after his graduation. He reluctantly accepted a position as private tutor for a Southern South Carolina family. On his way to South Carolina he met Mrs. Catherine Greene, widow of a Revolutionary War hero and plantation owner. Phineas Miller, the plantation manager, accompanied Green. The three established a good friendship once they arrived in South Carolina. When Whitney's tutoring job didn't work out, she willingly accepted Greene's offer to stay on his estate. His plan was to study law, but his attentions turned elsewhere. He quickly learned that most planters could no longer afford to support slaves because they had no crops that brought in enough money. Tobacco had been the main cash crop, but most of the land's fertility had been depleted in a few harvests. Corn and indigo crops were worth too little, while cotton crops required too much labor. The green-seeded cotton required constant maintenance, taking days to manually removeseeds from the fibers. Whitney used his mechanical expertise to build a simple machine that would turn cotton farming into a profitable business. A trained slave could pick fifty pieces of cotton per day, but it would take the same slave twenty-five days to harvest the same amount of seeds. Whitney's invention, the cotton gin, could greatly increase the speed of the seed removal process. The cotton gin had metal combs that removed the cotton fibers from the seed. The seed would fall out and a brush would remove the fibers. When Whitney demonstrated gin for Greene's friends and acquaintances, he was able to do half a day's work in an hour. Whitney did not realize how important his creation would become to planters, even though he knew that his invention had the potential importance to revolutionize the South's agricultural industry. He and Miller teamed up in hopes of profiting from the machine. Whitney moved to New Haven, Connecticut, where he applied for a patent and continued manufacturing cotton gins. Then he sent the simple machines to Miller, South Carolina, where, instead of selling the gins, the manager planned to sow the growers' cotton for them, at a price of one-third of their profits. Under these business conditions, this plan had the potential to make men millionaires. Whitney and Miller weren't so lucky, however. They have gone through many difficulties that have kept them in the red. The first sign of trouble came when Whitney's patent application was delayed. A yellow fever epidemic in Washington, D.C., paralyzed communications and delayed the patent for months. To make matters worse, Southern growers' expectations were high when they heard about the new machine's capabilities. In preparation for cotton profits, farmers planted row after row of the profitable new cotton crop. As harvest time approached, the problems worsened. Farmers refused to pay Miller's exorbitant price, and some stole the cotton gin's blueprints and built the machines themselves. These growers made their fortunes by pirating the concept of gin. To add to the pair's misfortune, unwarranted rumors regarding the Whitney gin had begun to convince many farmers that their cotton would be ruined by its machines. The "straw that broke the camel's back" came in 1795, when a fire at the New Haven workshop destroyed all twenty-five of Whitney's gins and the tools needed to produce more machines. The two business partners refused to stand by while others stole their patent. They took their case to several Southern courts. Their court battles were long, arduous and often frustrating. After a few years of fighting in court, they received only $90,000, just a fraction of what they could have earned if the plans had never been stolen. Neither man was able to enjoy the money at all as it went to cover lawyers' fees and court costs. In 1803 some states actually reneged on their judgments and asked for their money back. Whitney didn't know what to do anymore. The judicial conflicts had made him tired. He abandoned the business and moved north to escape frustration, returning to the south only briefly when trials in South Carolina seemed to be going well. Meanwhile, although completely defeated and penniless at the age of forty, he was ready to exploit his entrepreneurial spirit and mechanical skills. He heard that the US government was looking for a private contractor to help it increase its supply of weapons. At the beginning of.