Eli Whitney: More than just the name of a restaurant

I have been spending the day learning about someone who changed the course of history right here in our collegiate backyard. While Eli Whitney is long gone, he is locally memorialized by the common thoroughfare of Whitney Avenue, his name and likeness on the awnings and menus of the nearby "Eli's on Whitney" restaurant. Yet perhaps most of us know very little about the man who gives his name to much of Hamden's stretch of Connecticut Route 10.

Born in Westborough, MA (according to Wikipedia, his mother's maiden name was Fay- relation, perhaps?) he rose to fame by inventing the cotton gin, a device that separated the seeds from the useable part of the cotton plant (which apparently takes a ridiculously long time if attempted by hand.) The invention was a mixed blessing, as gave new life to a perishing Southern economy, as well as created conditions to establish the Northern textile industry. At the same time, however, in making cotton a more viable crop, it increased the use of slave labor, and perhaps even prolonged tensions that drove the North and South apart in the Civil War.

Whitney made almost no money on the invention, as patent law was weak at the time and copycat "improvements" came out frequently, but Whitney would achieve success and further fame later as he began manufacturing guns under contract with the U.S. government. In this capacity, he set up a factory in Hamden, using the then novel concept of interchangeable parts. Whitney is often incorrectly credited with "inventing" interchangeable parts, but through his words and practice had advanced the concept greatly.

Ultimately, Whitney has lent his name to Whitney Avenue, of course, Lake Whitney, and the Whitneyville section in southern Hamden. Perhaps you could think about his contributions next time you are sitting at a traffic light up Whitney Avenue, or enjoying a martini over at Eli's. Cheers to you, Mr. Whitney.

Read more about Eli Whitney on the website of his museum (located, where else but on Whitney Avenue in Hamden) http://www.eliwhitney.org/index2.htm