Cotton gin inventor Eli Whitney never profited from his machine and turned to gun manufacturing to escape poverty.

Eli Whitney received a patent for the cotton gin on March 14, 1794. While the machine could clean 50 pounds of short-staple cotton per day, its simple design was easily copied by Southern farmers. Whitney and his partner, Phineas Miller, attempted to charge a high royalty of one-third of the cotton crop, which led to widespread defiance and over 60 costly lawsuits.The legal battles drained Whitney's resources and the patent was not effectively enforced until 1807, just as it was nearing expiration. By then, Miller had died in debt and Whitney was nearly bankrupt. In 1798, facing financial ruin, Whitney pivoted to the arms industry by securing a federal contract to produce 10,000 muskets for the United States government.Whitney is often credited with promoting the 'American System' of manufacturing through the use of interchangeable parts. Although he struggled to meet his initial deadlines, his factory in New Haven, Connecticut, successfully demonstrated that precision machinery could replace skilled craftsmanship. This shift allowed him to accumulate the wealth that the cotton gin had denied him, forever changing the landscape of American industrialization.