considerable fortune in addition to the amount received for their work.
In 1822 Calhoun, then Secretary of War, admitted in a conversation with
Whitney that the Government was saving $25,000 a year at the public
armories alone by his improvements, and it should be remembered that
the utility of Whitney's labors during this part of his life was not
limited to this particular business.
In 1812 Whitney made application to Congress for the renewal of his
patent for the cotton-gin. In his memorial he presented the history of
the struggles he had been forced to make in defence of his rights,
observing that he had been unable to obtain any decision on the merits
of his claim until thirteen years of his patent had expired. He states
also that his invention had been a source of opulence to thousands of
the citizens of the United States; that as a labor-saving machine it
would enable one man to perform the work of a thousand men, and that it
furnished to the whole family of mankind, at a very cheap rate, the most
essential material for their clothing. Although so great advantages had
already been experienced, and the prospect of future benefits was so
promising, still, many of those whose interest had been most promoted
and the value of whose property had been most enhanced by this
invention, had obstinately persisted in refusing to make any
compensation to the inventor. From the State in which he had first made,
and where, he had first introduced his machine, and which had derived
the most signal benefits--Georgia--he had received nothing; and from no
State had he received the amount of half a cent per pound on the cotton
cleaned with his machines in one year. Estimating the value of the labor
of one man at twenty cents a day, the whole amount which had been
received by him for his invention was not equal to the value of the
labor saved in one hour by his machines then in use in the United
States. He continues:
"It is objected that if the patentee succeeds in procuring the
renewal of his patent he will be too rich. There is no probability
that the patentee, if the term of his patent were extended for
twenty years, would ever obtain for his invention one-half as much
as many an individual will gain by the use of it. Up to the present
time the whole amount of what he had acquired from this source,
after deducting his expenses, does not exceed one-half the sum which
a single individual has gained by the use of the machine in one
year. It is true that considerable sums have been obtained from some
of the States where the machine is used, but no small portion of
these sums has been expended in prosecuting his claim in a State
where nothing has been obtained, and where his machine has been used
to the greatest advantage."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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