552 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1937 



But for two fortunate circumstances we might never have known 

 the exact specifications and claims of Wliitney's patent, or the mechan- 

 ical features shown in his original model, deposited in the Patent 

 Office early in 1794. During the 10 years between 1795 and 1805, 

 24 suits for infringement of his patent rights were instituted in the 

 United States District Com't at Savannah, Ga. In the suit against 

 Arthur Fort and John Powell entered in 1804, a copy of the schedule 

 of specifications and a sheet of drawings were filed with the court. 

 This copy was certified to by James Madison, Secretary of State, 

 April 27, 1804, and is still a part of the court records at Savannah. 

 The papers and the drawings were republished by D. A. Tompkins 

 in 1901,^ and again by Chas. Bennett in 1933.^ 



The other record describing and illustrating Whitney's invention 

 was printed 19 years later, but still 9 years before the fire which 

 destroyed the original model and patent papers. John S. Skinner, 

 the editor of the American Farmer, in 1823 pubUshed the following 

 statement: 



When we received the following account of improvements made on cotton gins, 

 by Dr. Rush Nutt, nciir Petit-Guli)h, Mississippi, we a])plicd to Wm. Thornton, 

 Esq." of Washington City for a description of Whitney's cotton-gin from the 

 Patent Oflicc, that we niif^ht i)laco before our readers a complete view of so 

 important a machine and eiiable all of them to understand the nature of the 

 reported improvements.'" (See i)l. 1.] 



Editor Sldnner then gives a short description of Wliitney's gin, 

 much less detailed than the very full description in the schedule filed 

 in 1804 in Georgia, and a wood cut of the model in the Patent Office. 

 This illustration does not indicate that the model was equipped with 

 circular saws. The "cylinder" is described in the following words: 



Cylinder is of wood, its form is perfectly described by its name, and its dimen- 

 sions may be from six to nine inches in diameter, and from two to five feet in 

 length * * *. The surface of the cyhuder is filled with teeth, set in annular 

 rows, which are at such a distance from each other, as to admit a cotton seed to 

 play freely in the space between thcrn. The space between each tooth in the same 

 row, is so small as not to admit a seed, nor half a seed to enter it. These teeth 

 arc made of stiff iron, driven into the wood of the cylinder, the teeth are inclined 

 in the same way, and in such a manner, that the angle included between the 

 tooth, and a tangent drawn from the point, into which the tooth is driven, will be 

 about 55 or 60 degrees * * *." 



According to an act of Congress passed March 3, 1837, the Patent 

 Office was authorized to expend $100,000 in restoring the specifica- 

 tions, dra\vings, and models of the burned patents, by obtaining 

 duplicates of them from the persons possessing the originals. 



' Tompkins, D. A., Cotton and cotton oil, pp. 444-462, 1901. 



« Bennett, Chas., Cotton and Cotton Oil News, vol. 34, pp. 4-10, 44-47, Apr. 1, 1933. 

 • Dr. Thornton was the first Commissioner o( Patents and was appointed by Thomas Jeflerson to relieve 

 the Secretary of State of the rapidly increasing responsibilities of the Patent Office. 

 " Amer. Farmer, vol. 4, pp. 380-3S1, Feb. 21, 1823. 

 " Idem. 



