Whitney, Amos

Whitney, Amos

(born Oct. 8, 1832, Biddeford, Maine, U.S.—died Aug. 5, 1928, Portland, Maine) U.S. manufacturer. He was apprenticed at age 13. In 1860, with Francis Pratt, he founded the firm of Pratt & Whitney, originally to manufacture thread spoolers. It later diversified into the manufacture of innovative designs of guns, cannons, sewing machines, and typesetting machines; instruments for measurement developed there proved of great value to science and industry. Today a separate company, formed from the toolworks in 1925, produces aircraft engines and space-propulsion systems as part of the United Technologies Corporation.