![]() ![]() The Constitution empowers Congress "To promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries" in Article I, Section 8, Clause 8. If granted, he would have exclusive rights to his invention for 14 years based on the Patent Act of 1790, and he could hope to reap a handsome profit from it. Whitney knew that if he could invent such a machine, he could apply to the federal government for a patent. ![]() Her financial support would be critical to his success. Whitney was encouraged to find a solution to this problem by his employer, plantation owner Catherine Greene. The one variety that grew inland had sticky green seeds that were time consuming to pick out of the fluffy white cotton bolls. Long-staple cotton, which was easy to separate from its seeds, could be grown only along the coast. There Whitney quickly learned that Southern plantation owners were looking for a way to make cotton growing profitable at a time when tobacco was declining in profit due to over-supply and soil exhaustion. Reluctantly, he left his native Massachusetts to assume the position of private tutor on a plantation in Georgia. But, like many college graduates, he had debts to repay first and needed a job. Whitney filed this petition with Congress because his patent was set to expire.Įli Whitney and the Need for an InventionĪ recent graduate of Yale, Eli Whitney had given some thought to becoming a lawyer. Though he pursued a solution to this patent infringement in the courts, he was not always successful. Due to a loophole in the 1793 patent law, competitors were able to make cotton gins without his permission. In A Petition for the Cotton Gin on DocsTeach, students will analyze the petition Eli Whitney filed with Congress to renew his patent on his infamous invention - the Cotton Gin. ![]()
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