Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1910-09-06

Britain and the continent of Europe
comes from the United States. There
Is not mu prospect that this per-
centage will be lowered.
Before we were a great whcat-ox-
porting country we were great
cotton exporting country, and there
is every likelihood that soon we shall
cease to be great wheat exporting
country, but shall remain a,grcat
cotton. exporting country. The Eu
ropean nations do not like their de.
pendence upon us for that necessary
staple. cotton. Britain soon can get
along without our wheat and we
shall eat 1t all up at home, but Brit
ain can not get along without large
quantities of our cotton. Canada
and Argentina can not supply that.
Every European country is hunt
ing for some source other than the
United States for cotton supply.
Britain and Germany thought they
had found It in their African colo
MES. But thus far they have been
disappointed.
The man who made 1t possible for
us to become a great cOtton-grOwing
country, to have through our cot
ton hold on the civilized world
stronger in some respects than that
which an immense fleet and army
would give, was Eli Whitney. Ma
caulay said: What Peter the Great
did to make Russia dominant. ELI
Whitney's invention of the cotton
gin has more than equaled in It's
relation to the power and progress
of the United States"
whitney was born In Massachu.
sets In 1865. During the revou-
tionary war he was engaged in max
ing nails by hand. BY working as
machanic throughout his course
he was able to be graduated at Yale
in 1892, After graduation he went
to Georgia to take school which
was promised him, but upon his ar
rival he found that the place had
been filled. The widow of General
Nathaniel Greene, the revolutionary
hero, whom Rhode Island furnished,
felt sorry for the disappointed young
man and gave him home on her
plantation near Savannah, where he
began to study law.
Several contrivances that he fash
her great faith in his resourceful-
ness. One day when some people
were telling what misfortune 1t
was that the green-sccded cotton,
the most valuable of all, was 30
hard to clean OF seeds she suggest
cd that whitney be asked to try
to devise some means of separating
the seeds from the lint. A pound OF
green seeded cotton was all that
negro woman could separate from
the seed in day.
Up to this time whitney had
never seen either cotton lint or cot
ton seed. II was not the season of
the year for raising cotton and he
had some difficulty in obtaining raw
cotton for the purpose of seeing
what sort of machine would be need
ed. lie worked over machine for
some months. lie not only had to
invent ii, but he had to make his
tools and his own iron wire, for he
could not get wnat he needed in Sa-
vannah
Near the end of 1892 he had sue
cccded in making his gin. II was
exceedingly simple In principle ana
mechanism. Its main features were
a cylinder four feet long and five
inches In diameter, upon which were
set series OF circular saws half
an inch apart and projecting two
inches above the surface of the re-
yOlving cylinder. A mass OF seed
cotton, separated from the cylinder
by steel grating, was brought into
contact with the saw teeth as the
cylinder reyolyed. These teeth
caught the cotton while playing be-
tween the bars, which allowed the
line, but not the seeds, to pass.
This gin, almost unchanged, re-
mains in use today. 1T was one OF
the few inventions which have
seemed to spring spontaneously from
the brain of the inventor, per-
feet mechanism says writer. by
It's aid one can clean thousand
pounds of lint from seeds in the
time II formerly took a man to clean
five or six pounds.
Mrs. Greene and one Phineas
Miller were the only persons per.
mittcd to gee the machine, but ru-
mors respecting II had gone about
the State, and before It was quite
complete the machine was stolen
from the building whore II was kept
aud carried OFF. Before Whitney
could complete n model ana get
patent a number of machines had
been made surreptitiously upon the
plan of The stolen model aud were
In operation,
In l7Ha whitney formed q part