Eli Whitney's Revenge

Eli Whiney is remembered most by history as the inventor of the cotton gin which made raising cotton in the South extremely profitable. Problem is Whitney never made any money off his invention because it was so simple that people made their own without licencing his patent or paying him any royalties. In a way though Whitney would have his revenge. From the book Americana: A 400-Year History of American Capitalism by Bhu Srinivasan:

Whitney was on to a more lucrative venture altogether. Starting in 1798, having come to terms with the fact that little money would come to him from the cotton gin, he had turned his attention to weapons. With his skill in manufacturing and fame as inventor of the cotton gin, he received an initial order for ten thousand muskets for $134,000 from the US government. His long-awaited fortune eventually came from guns. In doing so, Whitney set the stage for the Connecticut River Valley to become a leader in arms manufacturing, a competitive advantage for the North that poetically would be felt by South Carolina and Georgia decades later.

Really enjoying this book which looks at American history through the lense of capitalism and what the economic motives of the times were.