Eli Whitney: Worthless Invention

Posted by admin on Sunday, December 8, 2019

Eli Whitney Money Quote saying after exhausting his resources defending the expired patent on his cotton gin invention, that it wasn’t worth it because the machine was too valuable. Eli Whitney said:
 

 

“An invention can be so valuable as to be worthless to the inventor” — Eli Whitney

 

 

In this quote, Eli Whitney is making the point that an invention can sometimes be so groundbreaking or innovative that the inventor lacks the means or ability to fully realize its commercial potential themselves.

Whitney seems to be suggesting that an invention may be of immense worth and value to society or future businesses, but the original inventor may not be positioned to benefit financially from it to the degree others could.

The best interpretation is that Whitney is acknowledging how an invention’s true worth or usefulness may far exceed what the inventor alone can extract from it, since others are better equipped to mass produce and market the invention on a larger scale for widespread adoption.

Birthday: December 8, 1765 – January 8, 1825