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• In 1790 the U.S. was an agricultural nation with little transportation beyond the coast (in 1775 it took a week to travel by land from Boston to New York).  Population 4,600,000, 4% urban (201,655). Experiments with industry and the building of a transportation system were about to begin, but most technology was produced by local craftsmen (mechanics, not engineers) who had very little specialized knowledge, just experience and ingenuity.
• In 1830 the U.S. had the beginnings of a transportation network (1277 miles of canals and 73 miles of railroads) and significant small-scale industry (particularly textiles and machine shops), larger-scale industry and the railroad network were about to develop.  Population 12,866,020, 9% urban (1,127,247).  Engineering had become a profession and engineers had substantial specialized knowledge, but they learned that by apprenticeship, not by going to school.
• In 1870 the U.S. had a fairly complete railroad network (50,000 miles--including the first transcontinental railroad completed in 1869) and large-scale industry in textiles and papermaking, mass production of complex metal machines (watches, sewing machines, bicycles, agricultural machinery) was about to develop, along with the electrical industry.  Population 39,818,449, 25% urban (9,902,361).  Engineering schools are being founded in large numbers as education begins to replace apprenticeship training.
• In 1910.  Population 91,972,266, 46% urban (41,998,932).  New fields of science-based engineering are becoming increasingly important, and more and more engineers work for the new big businesses.
• In 1950.  Population 150,697,361, 59% urban (88,927,464).

Eli Whitney (for more information see Discover Eli Whitney or an 1832 Memoir of Whitney):

• Born in Westborough Mass--30 miles inland from Boston--in 1765.
• a farming family, but they also had a workshop where Whitney made various items for sale.  When he was 16 he installed a forge in his father's workshop to make and sell nails when British-made nails became unavailable during the revolutionary war.  Then when competition returned he went on to other products, including hat pins and walking sticks.
• attended Yale, where he studied mathematics as well as Latin and Greek and thought about a career as a lawyer.
• Accepted a job in South Carolina, but stopped with friends who had a plantation near Savannah where they were experimenting with growing upland cotton.
• He learned that the problem of removing seeds from upland cotton was limiting the development of cotton farming and decided he could solve the problem.  In 6 months he had a working cotton gin. (For more on the history and mechanics of cotton gins see Cotton Gins.)
• In 1794 Whitney got his patent, but his business failed
• his idea was clever but his machine was simple--anyone equipped with simple blacksmith's and carpenter's tools could build their own once they saw the principle.  He could sue them for patent infringement but no one cooperated and it was too expensive to undertake so many small lawsuits (and they were sometimes unsuccessful).  The cotton gin revolutionized the economy of the south but didn't make its inventor rich.

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 U.S. Musket Model 1798 Type III Contract Flintlock .69, Springfield Armory

• Got a contract with the federal government in June 1798 to make 10,000 muskets in just over two years at a price of $13.40 each.
• He had nothing to deliver when the first deadline came, for 4,000 muskets by Sept. 30, 1799.  To avoid cancellation of the contract he claimed to be inventing a new principle; he said he would "form the tools so the tools themselves shall fashion the work."
• In Jan. 1801 he was still nowhere near done a contract that was supposed to be completed in Sept. 1799, but he provided a (fake) demonstration of his new idea--he brought to Washington 10 lock mechanisms and showed that they could be interchanged.  He was replacing one whole mechanism with the other, not interchanging the component parts.
• Jefferson and the Army were impressed, and agreed to renegotiate Whitney's contract from $10,000 to $30,000 and from just over 2 years to 5 years.

• His key technique was jig filing, which did allow the use of less-skilled labor and eventually made him a profit.
• But the idea he had promoted became the dream of the Army and the more innovative gun-makers who took army contracts, and was finally achieved in the 1840s.
• Whitney had finally gotten some financial rewards from his cotton gin invention and had invested the money well.  He got some more contracts for musket production, and despite fights with the government during the War of 1812 he became a respected manufacturer and engineer.  He dabbled in other machinery and made significant improvements in milling machines, but illness curtailed his activities after 1822 and he died in 1825.  

• for the argument that Whitney revitalized American slavery see Margaret Washington on the Impact of the Cotton Gin: The Engine for Slavery
• Alternative inventors: Catherine Littlefield Greene
• Odd Tributes to Whitney: a bar, his grave, Washington, Georgia