204 Memoir of the Life of Eli Whitney. 



the stamp on the blade. This he would likewise have executed, had 

 not the tools required been too expensive for his slender resources. 



When Whitney was fifteen or sixteen years of age, he suggested 

 to his father an enterprise, 'which was an earnest of the similar un- 

 dertakings in which he engaged on a far greater scale in later hfe.. 

 Tills being the time of the Revolutionary War, nails were in great 

 demand, and bore a high price. At that period, nails were made 

 chiefly by hand, with little aid from m-achinery. Young Whitney 

 proposed to his father to procure him a few tools, and to permit 

 him to set up the manufacture. His father consented, and he 

 went steadily to work, and suffered nothing to divert him from his 

 task, until his day's work was completed. By extraordinary dili- 

 gence, he gained time to make tools for his own use, and to put in 

 knife blades, and to perform many other curious httle jobs, which ex- 

 ceeded the skill of the country artisans. At this laborious occupation, 

 the enterprising boy wrought alone, with great success, and whh 

 much profit to his father, for two winters, pursuing the ordinary la- 

 bors of the farm during the summers. At this time he devised a plah 

 for enlarging his business and increasing his profits. He whispered 

 his scheme to his sister, with strong injunctions of secrecy ; and re- 

 questing leave of his father to go to a neighboring town, without spe- 

 cifying his object, he set out on horseback in quest of a fellow labor- 

 er. Not finding one so easily as he had anticipated, he proceeded from 

 town to town, with a perseverance, which was always a strong trait of 

 his character, until at the distance of forty miles from home, he found 

 such a workman as he desired. He also made his journey subser- 

 vient to his improvement in mechanical skill, for he called at every 

 work shop on his way, and gleaned ail the information he could res- 

 pecting the mechanic arts. 



At the close of the war, the business of making nails was no lon- 

 ger profitable ; but a fashion prevailing among the ladies of fastening 

 on their bonnets with long pins, he contrived to make those with 

 such skill and dexterity, that he nearly monopolized the business, 

 although he devoted to it only such seasons of leisure as he could 

 redeem from the occupations of the farn], to which he now principal- 

 ly betook himself. He added to this article, the manufacture of 

 walking canes, which he made with peculiar neatness. 



In respect to his proficiency in learning, while young, wc are in- 

 formed that he early manifested a ibndness for figures, and an un- 

 common aptitude for aridimeticai calculations, though in the odier ru- 



