The Cotton Gin and Interchangeable Parts Eli Whitney, inventor, businessman, Yale graduate,
was born in 1765 in Westboro, Massachusetts, where he was raised on his father’s farm, during the years our nation was
being established.
His
inventions of the cotton gin and interchangeable parts of muskets played significant parts in the development of the cotton
industry in the south and in the north to the manufacturing of other products such as clocks, watches, locks, sewing machines
and agricultural equipment.
Whitney’s respect as an inventor, as well as threat of war, the War of 1812, won him a government
contract to manufacture ten thousand muskets. This large contract would require an arms factory, which he built outside of
New Haven on the Mill River. This was a long process, which continued on after the outbreak of the War of 1812.
Whitney’s
inventions were of great consequence. His cotton gin revived the Southern economy, but at a fearful expense.
Increasingly, the South became tied to the annual fate of the cotton crop, which according to the Southern planters,
depended on the maintenance of slavery.
Mass production and interchangeable parts became a commonplace feature
of modern manufacturing. By lowering costs of production, wide distributions of innumerable products of
industry were made possible, transforming luxuries into necessities and affecting the tastes and habits of a whole nation.
The origins of the methods of manufacture used in automotive and aircraft industries, and in the manufacture of vacuum
cleaners and washing machine, may be traced back to Whitney’s shops on the Mill River outside of New Haven.
The War of 1812
On June 18, 1812, the United States declared
war on Great Britain, and as it was called then, “Mr. Madison’s War”, this nation was sucked into the concerns
of Europe, but Madison wanted no war. This nation could not afford war.
After over six thousand
American sailors were captured and forced to serve in the British navy under hellish conditions, this nation had no choice,
but to fight the British. The war which began because of the impression of our merchant marine, was ended
because trade. Britain decided that trade with the United States was more important than our merchant marine,
and friendship more
than enmity, thus agreements were made by the signing of the peace treaty at Ghent on December 28, 1814, and the war ended.
However, because of the War of 1812, the United
States could no longer be seen as a weak nation and the kite tail of Europe, but we had established ourselves as a strong
nation among the nations and could now look westward to the development of our newly purchased land, the Louisiana Purchase.
Due to the unrest with Europe, leading to the War of 1812,
the restricted import business was greatly effecting in the United States, creating a need to supply its people with
goods made at home. After the inventions of the cotton gin and interchangeable parts of Eli Whitney, the
door was open to increase mass production in this young nation.
Francis Cabot Lowell,
while a student at Harvard, whose uncle had built one of the first hand spinning mills, started to think about weaving cotton
by machinery. In 1811, he quietly made a trip to Britain, supposedly on vacation, to observe the textile
industry, watching the looms, asking questions, and comparing factories. After his return to the United States in late
spring of 1812, he was convinced that he could design a successful cotton factory that would weave cotton by machines instead
of by hand.
Early
Factories His
new idea aroused the interest of many wealthy investors and had no trouble creating capital. The first
factory was built at Waltham on the Charles River.
The opening, in 1815, began a new era of American production.
Every stage from raw cotton to finished production was under one roof, and each stage was mechanized to keep pace with
the other. More machines could be added as demand required and more factories could be built as needs arose,
making mass production and the industrial revolution in America a reality.
Lowell
partly staffed his textile mills with young farm girls, mostly coming from very large families, who lived in company operated
boarding houses with very strict rules tolerating no disobedience, where they were offered education from libraries and lectures
of famous Americans. They were required to attend church on Sunday. Their wages were enough to cover expenses and able to
save a dollar or two per week. His idea worked and the fame of it went as far as Europe.
The girls liked Lowell’s
plan and it was an achievement in mass production, having over 2500 girls in all of his mills. For the
daughters of back country New England farmers, the mills of Lowell were a finishing school or college where they could learn
the ways of the world and make money in the process.
Francis
Lowell died at the young age of forty-two, worn out from his own relentless energies, but before his death he traveled to
Washington, talking to men like John C. Calhoun of South Carolina about the great future of the textile industry, asking for
and being granted, a moderate protective tariff that would keep out foreign products made of very inferior materials. There
is something to be said about being, MADE IN AMERICA.
References taken from the writings of Historians, Nathan Miller, Rutgers Univerrsity; Geroge Dangerfield, Pulitzer
Prize Winner, 1953, and Thomas C. Cochran, Professor of American History, University of Pennsylvania.
