Eli Whitney Essay Example for Free

Eli Whitney Essay Eli Whitney (1765-1825) was a mechanical wizard. While travelling in the south, he became acquainted with the problem of removing the seeds from cotton. Enormous numbers of slaves were employed pulling the seeds out by hand. Eli Whitney spent a whole two weeks on this challenge and invented the cotton gin. He patented the invention and went on to capitalize on his invention by opening a factory to make cotton gins. It ended in bankruptcy. The failure of Eli Whitney to make his fortune on the cotton gin was due primarily to the very simplicity of the design of the machine. Once the initial shipments of Whitneys cotton gin arrived on the cotton plantations of the South, entrepreneurial individuals pried off the top and peered inside. What they saw was eminently copiableand copy they did. The Patent Office in Washington wasnt eager to send agents into the South to enforce Eli Whitneys patent rights, and he couldnt obtain legal redress in the court system, so he eventually walked away from his invention. Business students, in common with all students, are told not to copy. Copying is dishonourable and deserving of dismissal. They graduate and enter a world in which copying is endemic. A new idea is not the property of its originator because everyone copies in all areas of business. If a firm discovers a more efficient way of doing something, it will be copied. If a firm discovers a more effective way of marketing a product, it will be copied. If a firm discovers a more efficacious way of financing its expansion, it will be copied. Copying is critical in understanding the nature of the business cycle. Copying contributes to the ups and downs of the business cycle by directing larger investments into new areas than would occur if copying were not so endemic. The building of a greater number of factories than is necessary is a consequence of copying that helps to keep the good times good. (Randall Bartlett, 1998). On the other side of the coin, copying can cause businesses to dedicate too much productive capacity to new products. When all the investments are completed and the combined productive capacity of a thousand and one copyists is brought to bear on the market, all the copyists have for their efforts are huge unsold inventories and excessive productive capacity. Then they copy one another again by collectively slashing production to try to keep inventories in line with sales. This type of copying helps to turn good times into bad. One might expect that patent protection should limit copying. However, if what is being copied is a strategy for marketing or making financial deals, there is no patent infringement because an idea cannot be patented. Even copyrights on computer software have been difficult to enforce because a program can be essentially copied by rewriting it with minor editorial changes, such as calling something X that was called Y in the original program. Patents on products and processes are enforceable within a given nation, but they are more difficult to enforce in the international arena. Thus, a firm can spend millions to develop a new product and find itself in the position of not being able to recoup its research and development expenditures because copies are being imported from foreign copiers that do not have to price the goods on the basis of recouping the initial RD expense. The globalization of manufacturing facilities and free trade has proved to be a boon for copyists. The simplicity of the cotton gin, the ease of copying it, and Whitneys sad return on his investment in his invention are of interest in understanding the role of copying in the business cycle. But the real point of this discussion is Eli Whitney on the comeback trail. Whitney obtained a government contract to make ten thousand muskets. The contract presumed that he would make the muskets in the way that all muskets, and everything else, were made. In the cottage industry of the day, a musket was assembled by an individual who made a barrel, a stock, a flintlock, a trigger, and the other mechanical parts. As each part was made, it was filed to fit the rest of the components making up the musket. The result of this mode of production was that each particular part of a musket was unique. A flintlock made for a musket could not be removed and interchanged with the flintlock of another musket and be expected to work. The parts were not interchangeable without further filing because they were not uniform in design and would not fit together properly. Each musket was, in effect, tailor made to its own set of specifications. (David Burner, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Virginia Bernhard, 1991). To fill his contract with the government, Eli Whitney built a factory near New Haven, Connecticut, in 1798, that was unique in several respects. Water-powered machines were designed to replace human effort as much as possible. The machines were dedicated to the manufacture of the individual component parts of a specified design, rather than each part being individually handmade. In other words, Eli Whitney was substituting machine labour for manual labour, thereby increasing the productivity of labour. In Whitneys factory, the parts produced were of sufficiently close tolerances to be interchangeable. Quality control was introduced to ensure that the flintlock of one musket would be interchangeable with the flintlock of another with no additional filing. Eli Whitneys uniformity system had at its core the idea of manufacturing ten thousand barrels, ten thousand stocks, ten thousand flintlocks, ten thousand trigger mechanisms, ten thousand whatever, all of sufficiently close tolerances to be interchangeable without additional filing. The parts were manufactured first, and the completed musket was assembled later. Whitneys uniformity system was the forerunner of todays assembly line. Eli Whitney gave to modern society the most productive means of manufacture known to mankind. There are those who can point to the fact that he did not originate the idea, that it had antecedents in Europe. That is true and bears about as much weight as the fact that Christopher Columbus was not the first European to discover America. Leif Ericsson may, or may not, have been first. Even if Ericsson was first, what does that do to take away from Columbus achievement? It was the discovery of America by Columbus that counts. The nations of North and South America owe their existence to Columbus explorations, not to Ericssons. The same holds true for Whitneys uniformity system. More than any other individual, he popularized the idea of Adam Smiths specialization of labour. Eli Whitney vastly increased the productivity of his specialized labour force by replacing tools with machines and by introducing quality control measures to ensure that the interchangeable parts were indeed interchangeable. His water-powered factory in New Haven was the progenitor of many such plants in the northern states. Daniel A. Wren, Ronald G. Greenwood, 1999). Eli Whitney affected the course of the development of the United States in two quite unintentional ways. The removal of the cotton seeds by the cotton gin rather than by a slaves fingers had a dramatic impact on the profitability of growing cotton in the South. One might conclude that the price of slaves would fall with the invention of the cotton gin because the labour required to remove the seeds from the cotton was nearly eliminated. Was there no other impact that might have turned out to be true? But the cotton gin made cotton growing much more profitable because the slaves could dedicate more of their time to planting and harvesting the cotton rather than to removing its seeds. Nothing did more to spread the growing of cotton in the South than did the cotton gin. As new areas of the South were brought under cultivation, there was a greater demand for slaves. The price of slaves increased, and the institution of slavery, which was actually waning at the time of the invention of the cotton gin, was given new life. The South embarked on a path of agriculture based on slave labour. In the North, just the opposite occurred. Whitneys factory in New Haven was a cause of the Norths embarking on a path of industrialization, based, as some would assert, on wage-slave labour. As in the South, Eli Whitney himself had no pretensions of embarking on anything. He invented the cotton gin and tried to make a buck from his invention. When that failed, he devised the uniformity system to make a buck out of a government contract. Nevertheless, the social repercussions of his contributions to technology had a significant impact on the history of the nation. (John G. Blair, 1988).

Graduation Speech -- Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

I agonized over writing this speech for a long time, because I felt like nothing I could say would make a difference, first because I don't know if what I could say would be good advice, and second because I don't know if advice about things like being true to yourself and setting goals and all that is actually helpful. How can I give advice that I can't even follow in my own life? And even if you are mesmerized for my two minutes, you would walk out of here and your life wouldn't be any different. Or maybe you'd be inspired for a day, and then forget. But still, the speech had to be written. In my writing process, I would talk to various people, who were all very encouraging, and get all excited about a new speech and brainstorm a lot of ideas. Later I would sit down at my computer, a...

Gender Discrimination in Media Essay

Abstract This study examines women’s participation and representation in media. This study is based on the statistics of media units in Solapur city. Women constitute nearly 50% of population in every Indian city, but the participation of women in media is very low. Discussions of women’s representation in the media tend to revolve around the focus on physical beauty to the near-exclusion of other values. It is observed that media content about women issues is biased and gender discrimination is clearly visible .This study also suggests the ways to increase the women participation in media and the ways to rational representation of women in media. Introduction: Women constitute nearly 50% of population in India. Our social system boasts that it has given mother goddess status to women since the ancient period. But in reality society builds psychological barriers around women. This male dominated society imposed so many bindings against women. Therefore role of women was confined only to the kitchen and kids for many years. Social movement started by Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Mahatma Phule, Savitribai Phule, Maharshi Karve and other social activists opened doors for women’s education. Women have benefited greatly as education provided information to them about their rights and their equal status in the society. In spite of these efforts and the 65 year long journey since India’s independence , our nation is lagging behind in many basic things. World Economic Forum conducted a study to measure gender gap. The Global Gender Gap Index examines the gap between men and women in four fundamental categories: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival and political empowerment. According to this Gender Gap Report-2011, India is included among the 20 countries, where the gender gap is widest. It holds 113th position among 134 countries in the world. This report explains that â€Å"India and Pakistan perform above average on the political empowerment of women, particularly India, but they lag behind in the other three categories. In particular, the persistent health, education and economic participation gaps will be detrimental to India’s growth. India is the lowest ranked of the BRICK economies† (http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GenderGap_Report_2011.pdf) After India’s independence Women’s role in society has undergone seismic changes, which has been reflected in every walk of life. Women stepped out of four walls and succeeded in each and every field. Now women are working as pilots, soldiers, doctors, engineers, lawyers, politicians and proving their mettle in all fields. But it is ground reality that basic structure of male dominated society and roles and presumptions about women’s worlds remain the same. Still the life of majority of women in India remains unchanged. . The women who got benefited through education and succeeded to grab a job have to destine to face male supremacy. Gender discrimination is visible at every moment. Decision- making positions are not accessible for women. Many times working women have to face humiliation. Scenario in the field of media Scenario in the field of media also does not differ from it. Media Still remains as men’s world and this is global phenomena. According to the research conducted by International Women’s Media Foundation( IWMF ) 73% of the top management jobs are occupied by men compared to 27% occupied by women,Among the rank of reports , men hold nearl y two thirds of the jobs, compared to 36% held by women. These findings were collected by more than 150 researchers who interviewed executives at more than 500 companies in 59 nations. (http://iwmf.org/pioneering-change/global-research-on-women-in-the-news-media/global-report-online-version.aspx) According to this report statistics of women’s participation in Indian media is 13. 8 % ( e.g. Chief Executive Officer ) at top management , 23.3 % ( e.g. News Directors) in senior management ,18.3% ( Chief Correspondent ) in middle management and 25.5 % ( Reportes, Sub-editors ) at junior professional level . This report reveals that women’s participation in Indian media is very low and gender discrimination is the only reason behind this. Media sector in India is very strong and particularly India ranks second in circulation of newspaper copies in the world. â€Å"The new figures show that the four largest markets for newspapers are: China with 107 million copies daily; India, with 99 million copies daily; Japan with 69 million copies daily; and the United States, with nearly 51 million.† 1 Marathi newspapers in Maharashtra are also enjoying better position. Two Marathi newspapers Lokmat and Sakal are placed among India’s top 10 largest circulated regional dailies in the IRS first quarterly report 2012 . Lokmat is at second position and Sakal is at tenth position in this list. (http://mruc.net/irs2012q1-topline-findings.pdf) â€Å" Women participation in Indian media is negligible. Though a few women were appointed by the media many were not given big responsibilities. The media should be more responsible when it comes to reporting of women’s issues.† 2 This picture is same in Mahashtra state. Solapur city is 7 th populated city in Maharastra .Population of Solapur is more than 12 lacks. There are seven dailies having circulation of more than 25000 copies per day. But participation of women in newspapers editorial staff is negligible. It is observed that young women taking admissions to the media courses is increasing during last few years. But job opportunities are not easily accessible for them. Situation in electronic media seems better than newspapers. Table no 1: Ratio of Women’s Participation in Editorial staff of Daily Newspapers in Solapur This statistics clearly reveals that women’s participation in these newspapers as reporters, sub-editors, editors is less than 3%. Women journalists are confined generally to the table duties to edit women’s page or to cover cultural events arranged for women. Important beats such as political beat, crime beat does not allotted to the female journalists. They work on junior levels .In decision making process women’s participation almost neglected in all newspapers. Table no 2 : Womens participation in electronic media in Solapur Sr no| Media Unit | Male Journalists | Female Journalists| total| 1| AIR Solapur| 05 (71..42%)| 02 (18.58%)| 06| 2| Big 92.7 FM| 03 (100.00%)| 0(00.00%)| 04| 3| IN Solapur TV channel| 08 (80.0%)| 02 (20.0%)| 10| 4| Reporters of TV channels| 09 (90.0%) | 01 (10.0%)| 10| | Total| 23 (83.34%)| 05 (16.66%)| 30| Women participation in electronic media is 16.66% as compared to mere 1.97 % in newspapers. Solapur Working Journalist Union is organization of all journalist belonging to print and electronic media in Solapur .( Table no.3 ) Not a single female journalist included among total 125 members of Solapur Working Journalist’s Union Table no 3: Members of Solapur Working Journalist Union Male Journalists | Female Journalists| 125 ( 100%)| 00 ( 00 % )| Male dominated media managements are not allowing access to the woman journalists. According to the executives of the media, woman journalists cannot work in the night shifts and they are reluctant to cover every beat assigned to them .That’s why we prefers male journalists for the job. This gender biased assumption of the media managements is contrary to the real facts. Women are actively participating in every walk of life such as armed forces, space science, entrepreneurship, education, engineering etc.They work hard without any concessions and proved their mettle. These examples prove that women are going hand-in-hand with men in every field. Therefore women can do their best in the field of media. Barkha Dutt, Nalini Singh, Mrinal Pandey, Sucheta Dalal are some prominent examples of women journalists doing brilliant job than male journalists. It reveals that only reason for the less participation of women in media is the gender bias of the management. Women’s Representation in Media Media plays an important role in the dissemination of information and knowledge to the masses. It is the role of the media to educate people and to guide them for the development of society and nation. But media content about women issues is alwayes biased and gender discrimination is clearly visible in it. Most of the woman’s organizations blame on media that it is responsible for biased and stereotype portrayal of women. Any society cannot progress without upliftment and empowerment of women .But Indian media is engaged in portraying women as housewives.† Feminists objected to the stereotypical portrayal of women as happy home- makers who were less competent than men.† 3 Now women are active participants in every walk of life. Therefore it is important to to properly project the image of women as role model. For these purpose women participation in media should be increased. But mere participation does not change the situation. .â€Å"A large proportion of women thought that there would be a change in program content with as increase in proportion of female employees program quality would improve and more balanced perspective would be emerge. .† 4 Mrs. Suhas Kumar rightly suggested that â€Å"Women must become active participants in the field of journalism and other fields of media to fulfill the all-round development of women directly and indirectly.only through their involvement in journalism women will be able to speak for themselvesand the issues relevant to them†. 8 Therefore it is necessary to appoint women as decision makers in the newspapers. Special training must be given to all editorial staff about the equality principle and the rights of women as human being. Conclusion: Male dominated newspaper industry is reluctant to give access to women journalists. Women journalists are not assigned to cover important issues. News related to women issues covered by male journalists cannot give justification to the issue. There are no guidelines for reservations for women in media jobs.Mere increases in number of women journalists cannot change the gender bias in media. Suggestions: At the end, this study concludes with some suggestions (a) There is need to recruit women journalists in proportion, giving them equal opportunity and access to work in media. (b) The important women’s issues must be rported by women journalist. (c) Special guidelines should be given to all the journalists about projecting positive and real image of woman, without any bias. (d) There should be a provision to punish guilty persons for portraying women as commodity in any advertisement, news, article etc. References 1. The Hindu online edition ,New Delhi, Jan,10, 2011.8 2. The Hindu online edition ,New Delhi, June,4 ,2008 3.Thakurta Paranjoy,Media Ethics : Truth, Fairness and Objectivity,Oxford

The Disparities in the Provision of Health Services in the Modern Society Free Essay Example, 2750 words

To formulate and implement a health need analysis of disadvantaged children, there are certain core elements that those involved should be conversant with and address conclusively. First, HNA must identify the unmet health care and health requirements of these children and their families so that only the interventions that would provide for such needs are formulated and implemented. In other terms, an HNA should serve to improve the health of children and families in disadvantaged areas by allowing for the effective planning of health service provision. Importantly, HNA should enable health care providers to set their priorities and develop their policies according to the health needs of the target patient or group of patient. It should be apparent by now that an HNA should not be implemented for the mere purpose of establishing the health status of disadvantaged children; rather, HNA seeks to improve the health of these children and their parents by emphasizing the concept of incre asing the capacity of patients to benefit from intervention strategies (Cunningham Kemper, 1998). Regarding disadvantaged areas, health needs would refer to a population s abilities and capacity to benefit from whichever health interventions recommended, formulated and implemented by the authorities. We will write a custom essay sample on The Disparities in the Provision of Health Services in the Modern Society or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now Researches have confirmed that socio-economic disadvantage is largely associated with health and health needs of a population. However, the association between socioeconomic status and health is quite complicated and surrounded by quite a number of factors such as place of residence, education, income, health beliefs and behaviours and access to health services (Franks et al. , 2001). HNA thus requires that health care professionals define the health needs of socio-economically disadvantaged patients. The three forms of health needs that are observed in disadvantaged children/patients include the felt, normative and expressed health needs. These needs may interact at different levels in patients. For instance, while a health need may be felt and expressed by a patient, it may not necessarily be normative.