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During Eli Whitney Sr.’s lifetime, the workers in the Armory’s machining and filing shop used water-powered drills, milling machines, and polishing machines to refine the gun components created in the forge. However, true precision manufacturing had not yet been achieved, and the components still needed to be finished by hand. In addition, the Armory’s woodshop did not include water-powered machinery, meaning the carving out and finishing of the wooden gunstocks was also done by hand.
[LINK: THE ARMORY SITE]
The need for skilled hand finishing, woodworking, and assembly meant that, despite Whitney’s ambitions, the Armory needed highly trained workers. Because gunmaking was a specific and in-demand trade, there were few such people available.
Whitney’s solution was to train new workers. As he wrote to a friend and supporter on July 12, 1798, just as his plans for the Armory were getting underway: “I have not only the Arms but a large portion of the Armorers to make.” He brought on adult men to work in the factory, but also a group of apprentices, boys who would learn from the older workers. There were about eight apprentices at any time. At night, they slept in the attic of the machining and filing shop. As well as learning their trades in the factory, the apprentices also attended school on the site.
When the apprentices reached the age of 17, they moved from the Armory attic to the boarding house, where they lived with other unmarried workers. (All Armory workers were male, though women worked in other roles, including as the cook and housekeeper of the boarding house.) Whitney also had a row of houses built for married factory workers and their families. The workers did need to pay rent to live in the boarding house or the family houses, but in return they received modern, convenient housing.
The community centered on the Armory soon became known as Whitneyville. Later census records indicate many Armory workers also lived in their own homes in the surrounding area. In many cases, multiple generations of fathers and sons worked at the Armory.
We do not have many records of the early workers at the factory. It is not even clear how many men were employed there in Eli Whitney’s time, though some names are recorded in account books. Through the account books, we also know that some workers were paid based on piecework - how many finished components they produced - and others were paid a daily wage. The pieceworkers were likely the most skilled and specialized workers on the site, but all the employees were trained and had important industrial know-how.
The workers’ jobs were never easy. They would have worked 10 to 12 hour days, performing physically demanding and repetitive tasks. The work could also be dangerous: depending on their job, the workers might be exposed to molten metal, fast-moving machinery with few safety features, or sharp tools. Advances in technology later in the century did not lead to advances in safety: in 1860, sixteen workers were injured, some severely, in the boiler explosion that destroyed the original workshop building.
Because Whitney’s workers were highly skilled, they were also in high demand. There is evidence for workers moving back and forth between different gun manufacturers. They would have been pursuing better compensation for their skills, and they would have brought knowledge about improvements in precision manufacturing at other Armories. This means that, while their work was difficult and sometimes dangerous, the Armory employees likely had more control over their lives and fortunes than some other workers in the period.