Suddenly Mrs. Greene turned to them. “Gentlemen,” she said, “apply to my friend here, Mr. Whitney. He can make anything.” And she showed them several contrivances the young Northerner had made. Whitney modestly said that he did not know how successful he would be, but that he would try. In a few weeks he produced a model, consisting of a wooden cylinder encircled by rows of slender spikes set half an inch apart, which extended between the bars of a grid set so closely together that the seeds could not pass, but the lint was pulled through by the revolving spikes. A revolving brush cleaned the spikes, and the seed fell into another compartment. This machine could clean fifty pounds of cotton a day, as compared with one pound a day cleaned by hand. Whitney formed a partnership with Phineas Miller, who later married Mrs. Greene, and they built a factory at New Haven to make cotton gins. This place was burned to the ground in March, 1795, and the partners were plunged into debt. Several infringements of their patent then appeared to discourage them still more, and it was not until 1807 that Whitney’s rights were established. In the meanwhile, however, the inventor became disgusted with the struggle and began manufacturing firearms for the government. This proved profitable, and he greatly improved the methods of making arms. But from the cotton gin he received little revenue. His last years were the happiest. In 1817 he married Henrietta Edwards, the youngest daughter of Judge Pierpont Edwards of Connecticut. They had four children, a son and three daughters. Whitney died in New Haven on January 8, 1825. PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 29, SERIAL No. 29 [Illustration: ROBERT FULTON] _GREAT AMERICAN INVENTORS_ _Robert Fulton_ TWO Robert Fulton was not the inventor of the steamboat. He was, however, the first man to apply the power of the steam engine to the propulsion of boats in a practical and effective manner. Born of poor parents at Little Britain, now Fulton, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in 1765, he received only the scantiest education; but early showed promise of becoming an excellent artist. At the age of seventeen he took up painting seriously, and supported himself thus in Philadelphia until he was twenty-one. Then he bought a farm in Washington County; but soon after was strongly advised to go to England for the purpose of studying art under the American, Benjamin West. There he met Earl Stanhope, Duke of Bridgewater, who interested him in engineering. In 1794 he took out an English patent for superseding canal locks by inclined planes. He also invented about this time a new method for sawing marble, a machine for spinning flax, and another for making ropes.