The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-11-23

sand million dollars for persons other
than Elias Howe. Nearly 100000 a year
are manufactured in the United States.
Nearly 100000 persons in various Industries
are employed to operate sewing machines
in this country The use of the machine
is, widening constantly. From its orig
inal employment 1t has come into use in
the making of gloves. shoes. tents avn
ings sails, betting, book binding, har-
ness, bags hats caps, trunks, valises
and a multitude of other things.
To carry the number of sewing ma
chimes which America sells to the rest of
the world each year would require most
of the ocean steamships that are in New
York harbor any one day.
Without Matthew Brady the United
States never would have had the wonder
ful photographs of the Civil war which
his bravery and skill have left as a rec
ord of some of the most stirring and mo-
mentous events In the great struggle I'M
portant as was his work in this particular
his improvements In connection with pho
Biography in general and in relation to the
wet plate process in particular were of
more concern to the world at large. From
his various inventions he got little. He
like many others, did not know how to
safeguard his interests A lot of his
money earned as practical photogra pher
was wasted in expensive lawsuits. When
he died he was poor.
Eli Whitney Invented the cotton gin.
the wonderful device which got the name
of gin because the negroes of the south
corrupted the original name engine to the
shorter and easier one of GIN Whitney,
who had great mechanical skill was a
New Englander who went to the south
and. on the plantation of Gen. Nathaniel
Green of revolutionary fame. saw the
ara no lint 81
ton seed by hand Few things that came
from the brain of many have worked a
greater revolution than the cotton gin.
1t does the work of a thousand hands
Without Injury to the fiber it cuts the
lint from the seed and piles II into the
frame in which later it is baled.
From his invention, which may be
classed as one of the 10 most important
In history Whitney never got dollar of
profit Immediately upon the introduce
ton of the gin, dozens of persons pirated
the invention Whitney tried to protect
his legal rights and soon became in
volved in a lot of lawsuits Some of them
he won without much trouble Some of
the more important were carried from
court to court and were dragged on in
termlnably. The affair became one of
the scandals of the time. Mr.. Whitney,
disguised with the protracted and expen-
sive litigation, nearly at the end of hts
getting justice In the courts, determined
to let the world have the benefit of his
invention without profit to himself. The
state of Georgia, in recognition of what
II had benefited through the gin, voted
$4,000 to him. That did not cover the
legal costs, the lawyers fees and the time
he had given to the creation of the gin,
but with this money he embarked In bus
mess in New England in the manufac-
| ture of firearms and made enough money
| to live in comparative ease.
From some of his grea test inventions
Edison got little or -ing. The quad
| ruplex. the most important of all improve
ments to the telegraph, brought less than
| $4,000 to him. 1t was not until friends
| with good business knowledge took him
| in hand that he began to get the reward
| to which he was entitled. Had he not
| been prolific In producing wonder after
| wonder. his fate might have been the
| fate of many others.