Eli Whitney Blake

Eli Whitney Blake, Sr. (January 27, 1795 – August 18, 1886) was an American inventor, best known for his mortise lock and stone-crushing machine, the latter of which earned him a place into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Early life Blake was born on January 27, 1795, in Westborough in Worcester County, Massachusetts. He was the son of Elihu Blake and Elizabeth Fay (née Whitney) Blake. His older brother, also named Elihu Blake, was the father of William Phipps Blake. His sister, Maria Georgianna Blake, was married to Archibald Burgess. He was a nephew of Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cotton gin. His maternal grandparents were Eli Whitney Sr., a prosperous farmer, and his wife Elizabeth (née Fay) Whitney. His paternal grandparents were Tamar (née Thompson) Blake and Ebenezer Blake Jr., a descendant of William Blake, who emigrated from England to Dorchester between 1630 and 1635, and later helped William Pynchon settle Springfield, Massachusetts. Blake studied at Leicester Academy, and was graduated at Yale in 1816, after which he studied law with Judge Gould at Litchfield Law School in Litchfield, Connecticut.