after vexatious delays and lawsuits. North Carolina allowed him a percentage for the use of each saw for five years, and collected and paid it over to the patentees in good faith, and Tennessee promised to do the same thing, but afterward rescinded her contract. For years—amid accumulated misfortunes, lawsuits wrongfully decided against him, the destruction of his manufactory by fire, the industrious circulation of the report that his machine injured the fibre of the cotton, the refusal of congress, on account of the opposition of southern members, to allow the patent to be renewed, and the death of his partner—Mr. Whitney struggled on until he was convinced that he should never receive a just compensation for his invention. In 1791 the amount of cotton that was exported amounted to only 189,500 pounds, while in 1803, owing to the use of his gin, it had risen to more than 41,000,000 pounds. Despairing of gaining a competence, he turned his attention in 1798 to the manufacture of fire-arms near New Haven, from which he eventually gained a fortune. He was the first manufacturer of fire-arms to effect the division of labor to the extent of making it the duty of each workman to perform by machinery but one or two operations on a single part of the gun, and thus made interchangeable the parts of the thousands of arms in process of manufacture at the same time. His first contract was with the U. S. government for 10,000 stand of muskets to be finished in about two years. For the execution of this order he took two years for preparation and eight more for completion. He gave bonds for $30,000, and was to receive $13.40 for each musket, or $134,000 in all. Immediately he began to build an armory at the foot of East Rock, two miles from New Haven, in the present village of Whitneyville, where, through the successive administrations from that of John Adams, repeated contracts for the supply of arms were made and fulfilled to the entire approbation of the government. The construction of his armory, and even of the commonest tools, which were devised by him for the prosecution of the business in a manner peculiar to himself, evinced the fertility of his genius and the precision of his mind. The buildings became the model upon which the national armories were afterward arranged, and many of his improvements were transferred to other establishments and have become common property. His advance in the manufacture of arms laid this country under permanent obligations by augmenting the means of national defence. Several of his inventions have been applied to other manufactures of iron and steel and added to his reputation. He established a fund of $500 at Yale, the interest of which is expended in the purchase of books on mechanical and physical science. In 1817 he married a daughter of Judge Pierpont Edwards. Robert Fulton said that “Arkwright, Watt, and Whitney were the three men that did most for mankind of any of their contemporaries,” and Macaulay said: “What Peter the Great did to make Russia dominant, Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton-gin has more than equalled in its relation to the power and progress of the United States.” See “Memoir of Eli Whitney,” by Denison Olmsted (New Haven, 1846).
WHITNEY, James Amaziah, lawyer, b. in
Rochester, N. Y., 30 June, 1839. He removed in
childhood with his parents to Maryland, Otsego
co., N. Y., where he received a common-school
education, and began life as a farmer, but in 1860-'5
studied chemistry, mechanics, and engineering
without a master, and in the latter year became a
writer of specifications in the office of a firm of
patent solicitors. In 1868 he became an editor of
the “American Artisan,” and took an active part
in organizing the New York society of practical
engineers, of which he was president for several
years. In 1869-'72 he was professor of agricultural
chemistry in the American institute, and
in the latter year he established himself as a
solicitor of patents. In 1876 he was admitted to
practice in the U. S. circuit courts. Iowa college
gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1880. Besides
numerous essays on scientific, mechanical, legal,
and political subjects, Mr. Whitney is the author
of a monograph on “The Relations of the Patent
Laws to the Development of Agriculture” (New
York, 1874); “The Chinese and the Chinese
Question” (1880; enlarged ed., 1888); “Shobab, a Tale
of Bethesda,” a poem (1884); “Sonnets and
Lyrics” (1884); “The Children of Lamech,” a poem
(1885); and “Poetical Works” (2 vols., 1886).
WHITNEY, Josiah Dwight, geologist, b. in
Northampton, Mass., 23 Nov., 1819. He was graduated
at Yale in 1839, and then spent six months
in the chemical laboratory of Dr. Robert Hare in
Philadelphia. In 1840 he joined the survey of
New Hampshire as assistant geologist under Charles
T. Jackson, and remained connected with that work
until May, 1842, when he went abroad. For five
years he travelled on the continent of Europe, and
pursued chemical, geological, and mineralogical
studies. On his return to this country in 1847
he engaged in the geological exploration of the
Lake Superior region, and with John W. Foster
was in the same year appointed by the U. S.
government to assist Charles T. Jackson in making
a geological survey of that district. Two
years later the completion of the survey was
intrusted to Foster and Whitney, who published
“Synopsis of the Explorations of the Geological
Corps in the Lake Superior Land District in the
Northern Peninsula” (Washington, 1849), and
“Report on the Geology and Topography of a
Portion of the Lake Superior Land District in the
State of Michigan” (part i., Copper Lands, 1850;
part ii., The Iron Region, 1851). On the completion
of this work he travelled for two years through
the states east of the Mississippi for the purpose of
collecting information with regard to the mining
and mineral interests in this country. His results
were issued as “The Metallic Wealth of the United
States described and compared with that of other
Countries” (Philadelphia, 1854). In 1855 he was
appointed state chemist and professor in the Iowa
state university, and was associated with James
Hall in the geological survey of that state, issuing
“Reports on the Geological Survey of Iowa”
(2 vols., Albany, 1858-'9). During 1858-'60 Prof.
Whitney was engaged on a geological survey of
the lead region of the upper Missouri in connection
with the official surveys of Wisconsin and Illinois,
publishing, with James Hall, a “Report on the
Geological Survey of the State of Wisconsin”
(Albany, 1862). He was appointed state geologist
of California in 1860, and engaged in conducting
a topographical, geological, and natural history
survey of that state until 1874, when the work was
discontinued by act of legislature. Besides various
pamphlets and annual reports on the subject, he
issued six volumes under the title of “Geological
Survey of California” (Cambridge, 1864-'70). In
1865 he was appointed professor of geology in
Harvard, which chair he still retains, with charge
of its school of mining and practical geology. The
degree of LL. D. was conferred on him by Yale in
1870. Prof. Whitney was one of the original
members of the National academy of sciences named
