Biography of self taught men Author:Bela Bates Edwards Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ELJ WHITNEY. Mr. Whitney is well known as the inventor of the machine for cleansing upland cotton from its seeds—a machine, which has accomplished a great rev... more »olution in the agriculture and commerce of the United States. Before the invention of this machine, the seeds of the upland cotton were picked out with the hand; and to cleanse a pound was esteemed a laborious day's work. Upland cotton wag not, therefore, cultivated for exportation. This machine, enables one person to cleanse one thousand pounds, in a day, with great ease. The consequence has been that the cultivation of cotton has been introduced into all the southern States. Ip 1790, the quantity exported from the United States was only 100,000 pounds. In 1829, the value of the exports in cotton was $22,487,229. Cotton is now the staple production of the United States. If we should look at these facts in their bearing on the value of lands and slaves in the southern States, upon our rank as a maritime nation, upon the amount of the national revenue, and upon the various interests connected with them, perhaps it would appear that no invention ever produced such an astonishing change. A judge of the supreme court of the United States declared on the bench, that the benefit derived from Mr. Whitney's invention is to be estimated only by hundreds of millions of dollars.When we look at the fact that the culture of the cotton plant will occupy vast regions, on this, and on other continents, where it has not yet been introduced, it will appear that Mr. Whitney was a distinguished benefactor of mankind, and that his name will be honorably associated with those of Watt, Arkwright, Fulton, and Davy. He was distinguished on all occasions for his inventive genius. He established a manufactory of fire-arms, near the boundary of Ne...« less