Answer:
Eli Whitney was the inventor of cotton gin and a pioneer in the mass production of cotton. By April 1793, Whitney had designed and constructed the cotton gin, a machine that automated the separation of cotton seeds from short staple cotton fiber.
Eli Whitney could not benefit from his invention because the limitations of his machine appeared, and his 1794 patent for cotton gin could not be kept in court until 1807. Whitney could not stop others from copying and selling his cotton gin design.
Eli Whitney and his business partner Phineas Miller decided to go into the ginning business themselves. They made as many cotton gins as possible and installed them throughout Georgia and the southern states. They took an unusual fee from the farmers, two-fifths of the profits brought by the cotton itself.
Farmers all over Georgia were indignant at the fact that they had to go to the cotton gins of Eli Whitney, where they had to pay what they considered an exorbitant tax. Instead, the planters began making their own versions of Eli Whitney’ gin and claiming they were “new” inventions. Miller filed costly lawsuits against the owners of these pirated versions, but due to loopholes in the wording of the patent act of 1793, they could not win any lawsuits until 1800, when the law was changed.
Seeking to make a profit and mired in legal battles, the partners finally agreed to license gins at a reasonable price.
Explanation:
