y the young genius from
Massachusetts. Little calculation was needed to show them that the
cotton gin could clean as much cotton in a day as could be cleaned on
a plantation during a whole winter. What before had been the work of a
hundred hands for several months could now be completed in a few days.

[Illustration: Whitney and his Cotton Gin 163]

But it seems to be the fate of the majority of those who make wonderful
inventions never to enjoy the full benefits of the work of their genius.
Eli Whitney was not an exception to the general rule. While he was
working on his cotton gin, rumors of it went abroad; and by the time it
was completed, public expectation was on tiptoe. When the machine was
finished, it was shown to only a few people; but the fact, of such
immense importance to the people of the State, was soon known throughout
the State, and the planters impatiently waited for the day when they
would be able to put it in use.

One night the building in which Whitney's cotton gin was concealed
was broken into, ransacked, and the machine carried off. It was a bold
robbery, and a very successful one. The inventor made haste to build
another gin; but before he could get his model completed, and obtain
a patent right to the invention, the machine had been manufactured at
various points in the South by other parties, and was in operation on
several plantations. Whitney formed a partnership with a gentleman who
had some capital, and went to Connecticut to manufacture his gin; but he
was compelled to spend all the money he could make, fighting lawsuits.
His patent had been infringed, and those who sought to rob him of the
fruits of his labor took a bold stand. The result of all this was, that
the inventor never received any just compensation for a machine that
revolutionized the commerce of the country, and added enormously to the
power and progress of the Republic. Lord Macaulay said that Eli Whitney
did more to make the United States powerful than Peter the Great did to
make the Russian Empire dominant. Robert Fulton declared that Arkwright,
Watt, and Whitney were the three men that did more for mankind than any
of their contemporaries. This is easy to believe, when we remember that
while the South shipped 6 bags of cotton to England in 1786, and only
379 in 1791, ten years after the cotton gin came into use, 82,000
bales were exported. The very importance of Whitney's invention made
it immensely profitable for the v