features is so well known as to make it scarcely worth while to describe
it here. The different parts are two cylinders of different diameters,
mounted in a strong wooden frame, one cylinder bearing a number of
circular saws fitted into grooves cut into the cylinder. The other
hollow cylinder is mounted with brushes, the tips of whose bristles
touch the saw-teeth. The cotton is put into a hopper, where it is met by
the sharp teeth of the saws, torn from the seed, and carried to a point
where the brushes sweep it off into a convenient receptacle. The seeds
are too large to pass between the bars through which the saws protrude.
This is the principle of the first machine, but many improvements have
been made since Whitney's day. Nevertheless, by means of the cotton-gin,
even in its earliest shape, one man, with the aid of two-horse power,
could clean five thousand pounds of cotton in a day.
[Illustration: The Cotton-Gin.
(From the original model.)]
As soon as the partnership of Miller & Whitney was formed, the latter
went to Connecticut to perfect the machine, obtain the patent, and
manufacture for Georgia as many machines as he thought would supply the
demand. At once there began between Whitney in Connecticut and Miller in
Georgia a correspondence relative to the cotton-gin, which gives a
complete history of the extraordinary efforts made by the two partners
and the disappointments that fell to their lot. The very first letter,
written three days after Whitney left, announces that encroachments upon
their rights had already begun. "It will be necessary," says Miller, "to
have a considerable number of gins in readiness to send out as soon as
the patent is obtained in order to satisfy the absolute demands and make
people's heads easy on the subject; for I am informed of two other
claimants for the honor of the invention of the cotton-gin in addition
to those we knew before." At the close of the year 1793 Whitney was to
return to Georgia with his gins, where his partner had made arrangements
for beginning business. The importunity of Miller's letters, written
during this period, urging him to come on, show how eager the Georgia
planters were to enter the new field of enterprise that the genius of
Whitney had opened to them. Nor did they at first contemplate stealing
the invention. But the minds of even the more honorable among the
planters were afterward deluded by various artifices set on foot by
designing rivals of Whitney with a view to robbing him of his rights.
One of the greatest difficulties experienced by the partners was the
extreme scarcity of money, which embarrassed them so much as to make it
impossible to construct machines fast enough.
In April Whitney returned to Georgia. Large crops of cotton had been
planted, the profits of which were to depend almost wholly on the
success of the gin. A formidable competitor, the roller-gin, had also
appeared, which destroyed the seed by means of rollers, crushing them
between revolving cylinders instead of disengaging them by means of
teeth. The fragments of seeds which remained in the cotton made it much
inferior to Whitney's gin, and it was slower in operation. A still more
dangerous rival appeared in 1795, under the name of the saw-gin. It was
really Whitney's invention, except that the teeth were cut in circular
rings of iron instead of being made of wire, as in the earlier forms of
the Whitney gin. The use of such teeth had occurred to Whitney, as he
established by legal proof. They would have been of no use except in
connection with other parts of his machine, and it was a palpable
attempt to invade his patent right. It was chiefly in reference to this
device that the endless lawsuits that wore the life out of the partners
were afterward held.
In March, 1795, after two years of struggle, during which no progress
seems to have been made, although the value of the gin was proved,
Whitney went to New York, where he was detained three weeks by fever.
Upon reaching New Haven he discovered that his shop, with all his
machines and papers, had been consumed by fire. Thus he was suddenly
reduced to bankruptcy and was in debt $4,000 without any means of
payment. He was not, however, one to sink under such trials; Miller
showed the same buoyant spirit, and the following extract of a letter
of his to Whitney may be a useful lesson to young men in trouble:
"I think we ought to meet such events with equanimity. We have been
pursuing a valuable object by honorable means, and I trust that all
our measures have been such as reason and virtue must justify. It
has pleased Providence to postpone the attainment of this object. In
the midst of the reflections which your story has suggested, and
with feelings keenly awake to the heavy, the extensive injury we
have sustained, I feel a secret joy and satisfaction that you
possess a mind in this respect similar to my own--that you are not
disheartened, that you do not relinquish the pursuit, and that you
will persevere, and endeavor, at all events, to attain the main
object. This is exactly consonant to my own determinations. I will
devote all my time, all my thoughts, all my exertions, and all the
money I can earn or borrow to encompass and complete the business we
have undertaken; and if fortune should, by any future disaster, deny
us the boon we ask, we will at least deserve it. It shall never be
said that we have lost an object which a little perseverance could
have attained. I think, indeed, it will be very extraordinary if two
young men in the prime of life, with some share of ingenuity, and
with a little knowledge of the world, a great deal of industry, and
a considerable command of property, should not be able to sustain
such a stroke of misfortune as this, heavy as it is."
Miller winds up by suggesting to Whitney that perhaps he can get help in
New Haven by offering twelve per cent. a year for money with which to
build a new shop, and the inventor seems to have had some success in
reorganizing his affairs, even under such desperate conditions. Word
came at the same time from England that manufacturers had condemned the
cotton cleaned by their machines on the ground that the staple was
greatly injured. This threatened a deathblow to their hopes. At the
time, 1796, they already had thirty gins at different places in Georgia,
some worked by horses and oxen and some by water. Some of these were
still standing a few years ago. The following extract of a letter by
Whitney will show the state of his mind and affairs:
"The extreme embarrassments which have been for a long time
accumulating upon me are now become so great that it will be
impossible for me to struggle against them many days longer. It has
required my utmost exertions to exist without making the least
progress in our business. I have labored hard against the strong
current of disappointment which has been threatening to carry us
down the cataract, but I have labored with a shattered oar and
struggled in vain, unless some speedy relief is obtained.... Life is
but short at best, and six or seven years out of the midst of it is
to him who makes it an immense sacrifice. My most unremitted
attention has been devoted to our business. I have sacrificed to it
other objects from which, before this time, I might certainly have
gained $20,000 or $30,000. My whole prospects have been embarked in
it, with the expectation that I should before this time have
realized something from it."
The cotton of Whitney's gin was, however, sought by merchants in
preference to other kinds, and respectable manufacturers testified in
his favor. Had it not been for the extensive and shameful violations of
their patent-right, the partners might yet have succeeded; but these
encroachments had become so extensive as almost to destroy its value.
The issue of the first important trial that they were able to obtain on
the merits of the gin is announced in the following letter from Miller
to Whitney, dated May 11, 1797:
"The event of the first patent suit, after all our exertions made in
such a variety of ways, has gone against us. The preposterous custom
of trying civil causes of this intricacy and magnitude by a common
jury, together with the imperfection of the patent law, frustrated
all our views, and disappointed expectations which had become very
sanguine. The tide of popular opinion was running in our favor, the
judge was well disposed toward us, and many decided friends were
with us, who adhered firmly to our cause and interests. The judge
gave a charge to the jury pointedly in our favor; after which the
defendant himself told an acquaintance of his that he would give
two thousand dollars to be free from the verdict, and yet the jury
gave it against us, after a consultation of about an hour. And
having made the verdict general, no appeal would lie.
"On Monday morning, when the verdict was rendered, we applied for a
new trial, but the judge refused it to us on the ground that the
jury might have made up their opinion on the defect of the law,
which makes an aggression consist of making, devising, and using or
selling; whereas we could only charge the defendant with using.
"Thus, after four years of assiduous labor, fatigue, and difficulty,
are we again set afloat by a new and most unexpected obstacle. Our
hopes of success are now removed to a period still more distant than
before, while our expenses are realized beyond all controversy."
Great efforts were made to obtain trial in a second suit in Savannah the
following May, and a number of witnesses were collected from various
parts of the country, all to no purpose, for the judge failed to appear,
and in the meantime, owing to the failure of the first suit,
encroachments on the patent-right had multiplied prodigiously.
In April, 1799, nearly a year later, and two years after their first
legal rebuff, Miller writes as follows:
"The prospect of making anything by ginning in this State is at an
end. Surreptitious gins are erected in every part of the country,
and the jurymen at Augusta have come to an understanding among
themselves that they will never give a cause in our favor, let the
merits of the case be as they may."
The company would now have gladly relinquished the plan of making their
own machines, and confined their operations to the sale of
patent-rights; but few would buy the right to a machine which could be
used with impunity without purchase, and those few usually gave notes
instead of cash, which they afterward, to a great extent, avoided
paying, either by obtaining a verdict from the juries declaring them
void, or by contriving to postpone the collection till they were barred
by the Statute of Limitations, a period of only four years. The agent of
Miller & Whitney, who was despatched on a collecting tour through the
State of Georgia, informed his employers that such obstacles were thrown
in his way by one or the other of these causes that he was unable to
collect money enough to pay his expenses. It was suggested that an
application to the Legislature of South Carolina to purchase the
patent-right for that State would be successful. Whitney accordingly
repaired to Columbia, and the business was brought before the
Legislature in December, 1801. An extract from a letter by Whitney at
this time shows the nature of the contract thus made:
"I have been at this place a little more than two weeks attending
the Legislature. A few hours previous to their adjournment they
voted to purchase for the State of South Carolina my patent-right
to the machine for cleaning cotton at $50,000, of which sum $20,000
is to be paid in hand, and the remainder in three annual payments of
$10,000 each." He adds: "We get but a song for it in comparison with
the worth of the thing, but it is securing something. It will enable
Miller & Whitney to pay their debts and divide something between
them."
In December, 1802, Whitney negotiated the sale of his patent-right with
the State of North Carolina. The Legislature laid a tax of 2_s._ 6_d._
upon every saw (some of the gins had forty saws) employed in ginning
cotton, to be continued for five years; and after deducting the expenses
of collection the returns were faithfully passed over to the patentee.
This compensation was regarded by Whitney as more liberal than that
received from any other source. About the same time Mr. Goodrich, the
agent of the company, entered into a similar negotiation with Tennessee,
which State had by this time begun to realize the importance of the
invention. The Legislature passed a law laying a tax of 37-1/2 cents per
annum on every saw used, for the period of four years. Thus far the
prospects were growing favorable to the patentees, when the Legislature
of South Carolina unexpectedly annulled the contract which they had
made, suspended further payment of the balance, and sued for the
refunding of what had been already paid. When Whitney first heard of the
transactions of the South Carolina Legislature, he was at Raleigh,
where he had just completed a negotiation with the Legislature of North
Carolina. In a letter written to Miller at this time, he remarks:
"I am, for my own part, more vexed than alarmed by their
extraordinary proceedings. I think it behooves us to be very
cautious and very circumspect in our measures, and even in our
remarks with regard to it. Be cautious what you say or publish till
we meet our enemies in a court of justice, where, if they have any
sensibility left, we will make them very much ashamed of their
childish conduct."
But that Whitney felt keenly the severities afterward practised against
him is evident from the tenor of the remonstrance which he presented to
the Legislature:
"The subscriber avers that he has manifested no other than a
disposition to fulfil all the stipulations entered into with the
State of South Carolina with punctuality and good faith; and he begs
leave to observe further, that to have industriously, laboriously,
and exclusively devoted many years of the prime of his life to the
invention and the improvement of a machine from which the citizens
of South Carolina have already realized immense profits, which is
worth to them millions, and from which their prosperity must
continue to derive the most important profits, and in return to be
treated as a felon, a swindler, and a villain, has stung him to the
very soul. And when he considers that this cruel persecution is
inflicted by the very persons who are enjoying these great benefits,
and expressly for the purpose of preventing his ever deriving the
least advantage from his own labors, the acuteness of his feelings
is altogether inexpressible."
Doubts, it seems, had arisen in the public mind as to the validity of
the patent. Great exertions had been made in Georgia, where, it will be
remembered, hostilities were first declared against him, to show that
his title to the invention was unsound, and that "somebody" in
Switzerland had conceived it before him; and that the improved form of
the machine with saws, instead of wire teeth, did not come within the
patent, having been introduced by one Hodgin Holmes. The popular voice,
stimulated by the most sordid methods, was now raised against Whitney
throughout all the cotton States. Tennessee followed the example of
South Carolina, annulling the contract made with him. And the attempt
was made in North Carolina. But a committee of the Legislature, to whom
it was referred, reported in Whitney's favor, declaring "that the
contract ought to be fulfilled with punctuality and good faith," which
resolution was adopted by both Houses. There were also high-minded men
in South Carolina who were indignant at the dishonorable measures
adopted by their Legislature of 1803; their sentiments impressed the
community so favorably with regard to Whitney that, at the session of
1804, the Legislature not only rescinded what the previous one had done,
but signified their respect for Whitney by marked commendations.
Miller died on December 7, 1803. In the earlier stages of the enterprise
he had indulged high hopes of a great fortune; perpetual disappointments
appear to have attended him through life. Whitney was now left alone to
contend single-handed against the difficulties which had, for a series
of years, almost broken down the spirits of the partners. The light,
moreover, which seemed to be breaking, proved but the twilight of
prosperity. The favorable issue of Whitney's affairs in South Carolina,
and the generous receipts he obtained from his contract with North
Carolina, relieved him, however, from the embarrassments under which he
had so long groaned, and made him, in some degree, independent. Still,
no small portion of the funds thus collected in North and South Carolina
was expended in carrying on trials and endless lawsuits in Georgia.
Finally, in the United States Court, held in Georgia, December, 1807,
Whitney's patent obtained a most important decision in its favor against
a trespasser named Fort. It was on this trial that Judge Johnson gave a
most celebrated decision in the following words:
"To support the originality of the invention, the complainants have
produced a variety of depositions of witnesses, examined under
commission, whose examinations expressly prove the origin,
progress, and completion of the machine of Whitney, one of the
copartners. Persons who were made privy to his first discovery
testify to the several experiments which he made in their presence
before he ventured to expose his invention to the scrutiny of the
public eye. But it is not necessary to resort to such testimony to
maintain this point. The jealousy of the artist to maintain that
reputation which his ingenuity has justly acquired, has urged him to
unnecessary pains on this subject. There are circumstances in the
knowledge of all mankind which prove the originality of this
invention more satisfactorily to the mind than the direct testimony
of a host of witnesses. The cotton-plant furnished clothing to
mankind before the age of Herodotus. The green seed is a species
much more productive than the black, and by nature adapted to a much
greater variety of climate, but by reason of the strong adherence of
the fibre to the seed, without the aid of some more powerful machine
for separating it than any formerly known among us, the cultivation
of it would never have been made an object. The machine of which Mr.
Whitney claims the invention so facilitates the preparation of this
species for use that the cultivation of it has suddenly become an
object of infinitely greater national importance than that of the
other species ever can be. Is it, then, to be imagined that if this
machine had been before discovered, the use of it would ever have
been lost, or could have been confined to any tract or country left
unexplored by commercial enterprise? But it is unnecessary to remark
further upon this subject. A number of years have elapsed since Mr.
Whitney took out his patent, and no one has produced or pretended to
prove the existence of a machine of similar construction or use.
"With regard to the utility of this discovery the court would deem
it a waste of time to dwell long upon this topic. Is there a man who
hears us who has not experienced its utility? The whole interior of
the Southern States was languishing and its inhabitants emigrating
for want of some object to engage their attention and employ their
industry, when the invention of this machine at once opened views to
them which set the whole country in active motion. From childhood to
age it has presented to us a lucrative employment. Our debts have
been paid off, our capitals have increased, and our lands trebled
themselves in value. We cannot express the weight of the obligation
which the country owes to this invention. The extent of it cannot
now be seen. Some faint presentiment may be formed from the
reflection that cotton is rapidly supplanting wool, flax, silk, and
even furs in manufactures, and may one day profitably supply the use
of specie in our East India trade. Our sister States also
participate in the benefits of this invention, for besides affording
the raw material for their manufacturers, the bulkiness and quantity
of the article affords a valuable employment for their shipping."
The influence of this decision, however, availed Whitney very little,
for the term of his patent had nearly expired. During Miller's life more
than sixty suits had been instituted in Georgia, and but a single
decision on the merits of the claim was obtained. In prosecution of his
troublesome business, Whitney had made six different journeys to
Georgia, several of which were accomplished by land at a time when the
difficulties of such journeys were exceedingly great. A gentleman who
was well acquainted with Whitney's affairs in the South, and sometimes
acted as his legal adviser, says that in all his experience in the
thorny profession of the law he never saw a case of such perseverance
under prosecution. He adds: "Nor do I believe that I ever knew any other
man who would have met them with equal coolness and firmness, or who
would finally have obtained even the partial success which he did. He
always called on me in New York on his way South when going to attend
his endless trials and to meet the mischievous contrivances of men, who
seemed inexhaustible in their resources of evil. Even now, after thirty
years, my head aches to recollect his narratives of new trials, fresh
disappointments, and accumulated wrongs."
In 1798 Whitney had become deeply impressed with the uncertainty of all
his hopes founded upon the cotton-gin, and began to think seriously of
devoting himself to some business in which his superior ingenuity,
seconded by uncommon industry, would conduct him by a slow but sure
road to a competent fortune. It may be considered indicative of solid
judgment and a well-balanced mind that he did not, as is so frequently
the case with men of inventive genius, become so poisoned with the hopes
of vast wealth as to be disqualified for making a reasonable provision
for life by the sober earnings of private industry. The enterprise which
he selected in accordance with these views was the manufacture of arms
for the United States. Through Oliver Wolcott, then Secretary of the
Treasury, he obtained a contract for the manufacture of 10,000 stand of
arms, 4,000 of which were to be delivered before the last of September
of the ensuing year, 1799. Whitney purchased for his works a site called
East Rock, near New Haven, now known as Whitneyville, and justly admired
for the romantic beauty of its scenery. A water-fall offered the
necessary power for the machinery.
Here he began operations with great zeal. His machinery was yet to be
built, his material collected, and even his workmen to be taught, and
that in a business with which he was imperfectly acquainted.
A severe winter retarded his operations and rendered him incompetent to
fulfil the contract. Only 500 instead of 4,000 stands were delivered the
first year, and eight years instead of two were found necessary for
completing the whole. During the eight years Whitney was occupied in
performing this work, he applied himself to business with the most
exemplary diligence, rising every morning as soon as it was day, and at
night setting everything in order in all parts of the establishment. His
genius impressed itself on every part of the factory, extending even to
the most common tools, most of which received some peculiar modification
which improved them in accuracy or efficiency. His machines for making
the several parts of the musket were made to operate with the greatest
possible degree of uniformity and precision. The object at which he
aimed, and which he fully accomplished, was to make the same parts of
different guns, as the locks, for instance, as much like each other as
the successive impressions of a copper-plate engraving, and it has
generally been considered that Whitney greatly improved the way of
manufacturing arms and laid his country under permanent obligations by
augmenting our facilities for national defence. In 1812 he made a
contract to manufacture for the United States 15,000 stand of arms, and
in the meantime a similar contract with the State of New York. Several
other persons made contracts with the Government at about the same time
and attempted the manufacture of muskets. The result of their efforts
was a complete failure, and in some instances they expended a
considerable fortune in addition to the amount received for their work.
In 1822 Calhoun, then Secretary of War, admitted in a conversation with
Whitney that the Government was saving $25,000 a year at the public
armories alone by his improvements, and it should be remembered that
the utility of Whitney's labors during this part of his life was not
limited to this particular business.