Eli Whitney Essay -- essays research papers

By 1790 slavery was on the decline in America. Apart from tobacco, rice, and a special strain of cotton that could be grown only in very few places, the South really had no money crop to export. Tobacco was a land waster, depleting the soil within very few years. Land was so cheap that tobacco planters never bothered to reclaim the soil by crop rotation -- they simply found new land farther west. The other crops -- rice, indigo, corn, and some wheat -- made for no great wealth. Slaves cost something, not only to buy but to maintain, and some Southern planters thought that conditions had reached a point where a slave's labor no longer paid for his care. Eli Whitney came to the south in 1793, conveniently enough, during the time when Southern planters were in their most desperate days. In a little over a week, he started the biggest avalanche of production that any economy had ever experienced. The South would never be the same again. Eli Whitney was born on December 8, 1765 in Westboro, Massachusetts. The tall, heavy-shouldered boy worked as a blacksmith. He had an almost natural understanding of mechanisms. On a machine made at home, he made nails, and at one time he was the only maker of ladies' hatpins in the country. In his early twenties, Whitney became determined to attend Yale College. Since Yale was mostly a school for law or theology, his parents objected. How could Yale College help enhance his mechanical talents? Finally, at the age of twenty-three, Whitney became a student at Yale. By this time, he seemed almost middle-aged to his classmates. After he graduated with his degree in 1792, he found that no jobs were available to a man with his talents. He eventually settled for teaching, and accepted a job as a tutor in South Carolina, his salary was promised to be one hundred guineas a year. He sailed on a small coasting packet with only a few passengers, among whom was the widow of the Revolutionary general, Nathanael Greene. The Greenes had settled in Savannah after the war. When Whitney arrived in South Carolina, he found that the promised salary was going to be halved. He not only refused to take the position, but decided to give up teaching all together. Coming to his aid, Mrs. Greene invited him to her plantation where he could read law, and also help out the plantation manager, Phineas Miller. Miller, a few years older than Whitney, wa... ...housand dollars in bonds from his friends in New Haven, and he personally borrowed ten thousand dollars from the New Haven bank. The sum involved in this big order, $134,000, was the biggest single transaction in the country at that time. By then end of the first year, Whitney was just getting into production, a big accomplishment for those times, but instead of the four thousand muskets he had promised, there were only five hundred produced. When news of this got to Whitney's financial backers, they became doubtful. All in all, it took Whitney almost eight years to fill the entire order. There were still many gaps in his system. There were endless bugs to be worked out, however, most of the ten thousand muskets were produced in the last two years. In 1811, Whitney took another order, this time for fifteen thousand. These were all produced in only two years. Whitney continued on with his development of the factory until his death on January 8, 1825. Unfortunately, Whitney has been all but forgotten. He is mostly remembered as "the cotton man," and nothing else. However, without the ingenuity and dedication of this individual, who knows where the world might be today. Eli Whitney Essay -- essays research papers By 1790 slavery was on the decline in America. Apart from tobacco, rice, and a special strain of cotton that could be grown only in very few places, the South really had no money crop to export. Tobacco was a land waster, depleting the soil within very few years. Land was so cheap that tobacco planters never bothered to reclaim the soil by crop rotation -- they simply found new land farther west. The other crops -- rice, indigo, corn, and some wheat -- made for no great wealth. Slaves cost something, not only to buy but to maintain, and some Southern planters thought that conditions had reached a point where a slave's labor no longer paid for his care. Eli Whitney came to the south in 1793, conveniently enough, during the time when Southern planters were in their most desperate days. In a little over a week, he started the biggest avalanche of production that any economy had ever experienced. The South would never be the same again. Eli Whitney was born on December 8, 1765 in Westboro, Massachusetts. The tall, heavy-shouldered boy worked as a blacksmith. He had an almost natural understanding of mechanisms. On a machine made at home, he made nails, and at one time he was the only maker of ladies' hatpins in the country. In his early twenties, Whitney became determined to attend Yale College. Since Yale was mostly a school for law or theology, his parents objected. How could Yale College help enhance his mechanical talents? Finally, at the age of twenty-three, Whitney became a student at Yale. By this time, he seemed almost middle-aged to his classmates. After he graduated with his degree in 1792, he found that no jobs were available to a man with his talents. He eventually settled for teaching, and accepted a job as a tutor in South Carolina, his salary was promised to be one hundred guineas a year. He sailed on a small coasting packet with only a few passengers, among whom was the widow of the Revolutionary general, Nathanael Greene. The Greenes had settled in Savannah after the war. When Whitney arrived in South Carolina, he found that the promised salary was going to be halved. He not only refused to take the position, but decided to give up teaching all together. Coming to his aid, Mrs. Greene invited him to her plantation where he could read law, and also help out the plantation manager, Phineas Miller. Miller, a few years older than Whitney, wa... ...housand dollars in bonds from his friends in New Haven, and he personally borrowed ten thousand dollars from the New Haven bank. The sum involved in this big order, $134,000, was the biggest single transaction in the country at that time. By then end of the first year, Whitney was just getting into production, a big accomplishment for those times, but instead of the four thousand muskets he had promised, there were only five hundred produced. When news of this got to Whitney's financial backers, they became doubtful. All in all, it took Whitney almost eight years to fill the entire order. There were still many gaps in his system. There were endless bugs to be worked out, however, most of the ten thousand muskets were produced in the last two years. In 1811, Whitney took another order, this time for fifteen thousand. These were all produced in only two years. Whitney continued on with his development of the factory until his death on January 8, 1825. Unfortunately, Whitney has been all but forgotten. He is mostly remembered as "the cotton man," and nothing else. However, without the ingenuity and dedication of this individual, who knows where the world might be today.

Foreign and Local Literature of Effects of Online Games to Students

â€Å"COMMONWEALTH HISTORY† THE BIRTH OF THE MODERN COMMONWEALTH The birth of the modern Commonwealth, as we recognise it today, really began with the independence of India and Pakistan from Britain in 1947. In 1949, India’s desire to become a republic and to cut constitutional ties with the British monarchy while remaining within the Commonwealth, forced leaders to rethink the principles of Commonwealth membership. The London Declaration of the same year dropped the word ‘British’ from the association’s title. Removing the requirement that member countries have the British Monarch as their Head of State, the same Declaration recognised King George VI as the â€Å"symbol of their free association and as such Head of the Commonwealth†. India was thus welcomed as the first republican member in a modern, and voluntary, association. So exceptional was the spirit of accommodation on all sides in reaching this agreement that the Indian Prime Minister, Jawarhalal Nehru, was moved to say at the time that the Commonwealth could bring â€Å"a touch of healing† to the management of contemporary world problems. Committed to racial equality and national sovereignty, the Commonwealth became the natural association of choice for many new nations emerging out of decolonisation in the 1950s and 1960s. Ghana achieved independence in 1957 and became the first majority-ruled African member. Jamaica was the first to claim independence in the Caribbean in 1962; and, in the same year, Samoa became the first among countries in the Pacific (excluding Australia and New Zealand). From this point on, the Commonwealth expanded rapidly. IMPORTANT MILESTONES IN HISTORY In 1965, an important milestone was reached when Commonwealth leaders established the Commonwealth Secretariat at Marlborough House in London. This was to be the association’s own independent civil service, headed by a Commonwealth Secretary-General. The Secretary-General is now elected by Heads for no more than two four-year terms in office. Mr Kamalesh Sharma, an Indian diplomat, took up office as the most recent Commonwealth Secretary-General in April 2008. He is the fifth, and follows the Canadian Arnold Smith (1965 – 1975), Sir Shridath Ramphal, from Guyana (1975 – 1990), Chief Anyaoku, from Nigeria (1990 – 2000) and New Zealander, Don McKinnon (2000 – 2008). Previously, the Commonwealth had been administered through the government of the UK, but this move made the Secretariat answerable to all member governments. It carries out consultations on their behalf, helps them with policy-making, the spread of information and the delivery of agreed Commonwealth initiatives. A year later, in 1966, the Commonwealth Foundation was launched to support the work of a growing number of Commonwealth professional associations and NGOs and to promote Commonwealth art and culture. Two further milestones occurred in 1971. First, leaders adopted the Singapore Declaration of Commonwealth Principles which gave the association a formal code of ethics and committed members to improving human rights and seeking racial and economic justice. The leaders declared their belief in peace, liberty, human dignity and democracy. At the same time, they declared their abhorrence of racial prejudice, colonial domination and wide disparities of wealth. The Heads declared: â€Å"We believe that international co-operation is essential to remove the causes of war, promote tolerance, combat injustice and secure development. We are convinced that the Commonwealth is one of the most fruitful associations for these purposes†¦(and that it can) provide a constructive example of the multi-national approach which is vital†¦(and) based on consultation, discussion and co-operation. Secondly, they established the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation. Based on the concept of mutualism, the Fund was among the first to advance the idea of technical cooperation among developing countries. In 1991, building on the principals adopted in Singapore, the Harare Declaration set the Commonwealth firmly on new course for a new century: that of promoting democracy and good governance, human rights and the rule of law, an d sustainable economic and social development. As part of the Harare priorities, the Commonwealth provides assistance to countries in transition to democracy by helping to draft legislation, review and amend electoral procedures and otherwise create the framework for democracy to take root. Between 1990 and mid-1996, the Commonwealth observed some 18 elections or referendums to further this work. At a 1995 summit in New Zealand, leaders adopted the Millbrook Commonwealth Action Programme to give practical expression to the Harare principles, particularly democracy, evelopment and consensus-building. They agreed on practical steps to address serious and persistent violations of these principles and established a mechanism – a Ministerial Action Group of Foreign Ministers – to carry this forward. It was in this context that, in the face of human rights abuses by a military regime, they took the unprecedented step of suspending Nigeria’s membership.