Details
WHITNEY, ELI, American inventor. Autograph letter signed ("Eli Whitney" with large paraph) to William Lee, Second Auditor in the Treasury Department, New Haven, Conn., 22 September 1817. One page, 4to, small paper repair along one fold, attractively matted with an engraved portrait, framed and glazed.
Whitney acknowledges receipt of part of his fee for manufacturing arms for the government. "I have this day rec[eive]d a remittance of Six Thousand Dollars from the Treasurer of the U States on acc[oun]t of my contract for manufacturing arms...."
Whitney (1765-1825), following his work on the cotton gin, and complicated lawsuits regarding his patent, had sought a new venture and in 1798, backed by several influential individuals, had secured a contract with the fedral government to furnish ten thousand stand of arms in two years, a delivery time generally judged impossible by the mechanical methods of the time. Whitney proposed to shorten and simplify the production process by manufacturing interchangeable parts to exacting specifications. It proved to be a more complex problem than Whitney had imagined and was eight years before he could complete the initial contract. In 1812 a second contract for 15,000 arms was issued and the success of his new methods was assured: "Workmen with little or no experience could operate his machinery and with it turn out by the hundreds the various parts of a musket...." (DAB).
Whitney acknowledges receipt of part of his fee for manufacturing arms for the government. "I have this day rec[eive]d a remittance of Six Thousand Dollars from the Treasurer of the U States on acc[oun]t of my contract for manufacturing arms...."
Whitney (1765-1825), following his work on the cotton gin, and complicated lawsuits regarding his patent, had sought a new venture and in 1798, backed by several influential individuals, had secured a contract with the fedral government to furnish ten thousand stand of arms in two years, a delivery time generally judged impossible by the mechanical methods of the time. Whitney proposed to shorten and simplify the production process by manufacturing interchangeable parts to exacting specifications. It proved to be a more complex problem than Whitney had imagined and was eight years before he could complete the initial contract. In 1812 a second contract for 15,000 arms was issued and the success of his new methods was assured: "Workmen with little or no experience could operate his machinery and with it turn out by the hundreds the various parts of a musket...." (DAB).