WHITE OUT INVENTER LICENSE
Struggling to make a profit and mired in legal battles, Whitney and his partners finally agreed to license gins at a reasonable price. Greene and Miller brought costly suits against the owners of these pirated versions, but because of a loophole in the wording of the 1793 patent act, they were unable to win any suits until 1800, when the law was changed. They began making their own versions of Whitney's gin and claiming they were "new" inventions. However, farmers and plantation owners throughout Georgia resented having to go to Whitney's gins where they had to pay what they regarded as an exorbitant tax. Their charge was two-fifths of the profit – paid to them in cotton itself.
WHITE OUT INVENTER INSTALL
Originally, Whitney opted to produce as many gins as possible, install them throughout Georgia and the South, and charge farmers a fee for doing the ginning for them. "One man and a horse will do more than fifty men with the old machines," wrote Whitney to his father, "Tis generally said by those who know anything about it, that I shall make a Fortune by it." But patenting an invention and making a profit from it are two different things. Whitney received a patent for his cotton gin in 1794 (his idea was based on earlier gins and also on ideas from other people, including Greene and enslaved laborers some say that these were the rightful inventors of the cotton gin). Greene and her husband, Phineas Miller, financed Whitney and the legal battle that would ensue.Ī small gin could be hand-cranked larger versions could be harnessed to a horse or driven by water power. In hopes of making a patentable machine, Whitney put aside his plans to study law and instead tinkered throughout the winter and spring in a secret workshop provided by Catherine Greene. Patent and Trademark Office is under the auspices of the Department of Commerce. Over time the requirements and procedures have changed. The patent bill of 1790 enabled the government to patent "any useful art, manufacture, engine, machine, or device, or any instrument thereon not before known or used." The patent act of 1793 gave the secretary of state the power to issue a patent to anyone who presented working drawings, a written description, a model, and paid an application fee. Patent law must carefully balance the rights of the inventor to profit from his or her invention (through the grant of a temporary monopoly) against the needs of society at large to benefit from new ideas. 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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