Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 10.djvu/417

 WHITNEY

WHITNEY

" Walt Whitman as a Religious and Moral Teacher" by William Norman Guthrie (1897); and " A Visit to Walt Whitman " by Dr. John- ston (London, new ed., 1898). Walt Whitman died in Camden, N.J., March 26, 1892, and was buried in a tomb designed and erected by himself in Harleigh cemetery.

WHITNEY, Adeline Dutton Train, author, was born in Boston, Mass., Sept. 15, 1824 ; daugh- ter of Enoch and Adeline (Dutton) Train ; grand- daughter of Enoch and Hannah (Ewing) Train, and of Silas and Nancy (Tobey) Dutton. She at- tended the school of George B. Emerson, Boston, Mass., 1837-42 ; and was married, Nov. 7, 1843, to Seth Dunbar, son of Moses and Rebecca (Dunbar) Whitney of Milton, Mass. She wrote little for publication in early life, her first practical publi- cation appearing in 1859. She patented a set of alphabet blocks, and is the author of : Footsteps on the Seas, a poem (1857) ; Mother Goose for Groum folks (1860 ; new ed., 1870 and 1882) ; Boys at Chequasset (1863) ; Faith Gartney's Girl- hood (1863) ; The Gayworthys (1865) ; A Summer in Leslie Goldthwaite's Life (1866) ; Patience Strong's Outings (1868) ; Hitherto (1869) ; We Girls (1870) ; Real Folks (1871) ; Pansies, poems (1872) ; The Other Girls (1873) ; Sights and In- sights (1876) ; Just Hoio : A Key to the Cook Books (1878) ; Odd or Even ? (1880) ; Bonnyhorough

(1885) ; Homesxmn Yarns (1886) ; Holy Tides

(1886) ; Daffodils (1887) ; Bird Talk (1888); Ascutney Street (1890) ; A Golden Gossip (1891) ; Square Pegs (1894) ; Friendly Letters to Girl Friends (1896) ; The Open Mystery: A Reading of the Mosaic Story (1897) ; The Litegrity of Christian Science (1900).

WHITNEY, Asa, inventor, was born in Town- send, Mass., Dec. 1, 1791. His father was a blacksmith, and Asa followed that trade until 1812, when he removed to New Hampshire and was employed in a machine shop. He was sent to Brownsville, N.Y., to fit up a cotton mill ; con- ducted a machine shop in Brownsville till 1830 ; was assistant superintendent of the Mohawk and Hudson railway, 1830-39, and canal commissioner in enlarging and managing the Erie canal, 1839- 42. He was a partner with Jlatthew W. Baldwin in the Baldwin locomotive works in Pliiladelphia, 1852-54 ; was chosen president of the Morris canal company in 1854, and constructed the steam in- cline planes used on the canal. He invented the corrugated plate car wheel, in 1847, and began its manufacture in partnership with his son, George Whitney. In 1848 he invented a process for an- nealing car wheels, that mcreased both their speed and capacity. This invention gained him a fortune and about 75,000 car wheels were an- nually manufactured by A. Whitney & Sons. He was president of the Reading railroad, 1860-

61, resigning in 1861, on account of failing health. By his will he gave $50,000 to found the chair of dynamical engineering in the University of Pennsylvania ; $12,500 to the Franklin Institute, and $20,000 to the Old Men's home, Philadelphia.' He died in Philadelphia, Pa., June 4, 1874.

WHITNEY, Eli, inventor, was born in West- borough, Mass., Dec. 8, 1765. He engaged in the business of making nails by hand, and by his in- dustry saved money enough to pay his college ex- penses, being graduated from Yale, A.B., 1792, A.M., 1795. He was invited by the widow of Gen. Nathanael Greene to make his home at her planta- tion, called Mulberry Grove, on the Savan- nah river in Georgia. He studied law, but abandoned it to fol- low his mechanical talent, devoting him- self to the problem of inventing a machine for separating cotton lint from the seed. In 1793 he solved the difficulty by completing the saw cotton gin, which consists of two cylinders : one, revolving with great velocity, to pull the lint from the seed by means of from fifty to eighty steel disks with serrated edges, and the other to remove the lint from the saw teeth by means of stiff brushes. This machine, which, with a few improvements remains exactly as it was first invented, has a capacity equal to that of 3000 pairs of hands in separating the lint from the seed, which process, up, to tlie time of its invention, was the only means used in the separation. Mr. Whitney was unable to keep his invention secret, and before he could obtain a patent several gins were being operated on various neighboring plantations. He formed a partnership with Phineas Miller, and removed to Connecticut to manufactui'e the machines, but owing to endless litigation caused by the infringement of his patent, he was ob- liged in 1796 to devote himself to the manufacture of firearms in order to obtain a livelihood. He removed to New Haven, Conn., and originated the system of making the manufacture of dif- ferent parts of a gun interchangeable among several mechanics. He built an armory at Whit- neyville, near New Haven, and filled a govern- ment contract for ten thousand stands of mus- kets. He received $50,000 from the legislature of South Carolina for the general use of the cotton gin, and was allowed a further royalty on every gin used in the state, but considering