558 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1937 



constructing a well known machine on a principle which has been in use for 

 eight years, tlian could be expected from the mechanics who are in the habit of 

 constructing these machines in the upper country .^^ 



Whitney later did prepare the models demanded, according to 

 Professor Olmsted: 



Two models of a gin were also furnished by Mr. Whitney, executed we are 

 told in a most superior and masterly manner, and far surpassing in excellence, 

 any machinery of the kind ever before seen; they were of metal and so nicely, 

 and substantially made, tliat it is hardly possible for them to get out of order; 

 and they worked with such ease, that when the hopper of a forty Saw Gin was 

 filled with cotton, the labor of turning it was not greater than that of turning 

 a common grindstone. The models were highly approved and the Legislature 

 did not hesitate to do justice to the ingenious inventor, according to their original 

 agreement * * *." 



One of these models was described by Wailcs in 1854 as being 

 constructed on an iron frame, "with 40 saws, 6% inches in diameter, 

 separated by block tin or pewter castings." ^^ Efforts have been 

 made to determine whether or not these official gin models are now in 

 existence, but so far without success. 



IV. EARLY ACTIVITIES OF WHITNEY IN GEORGIA 



There have been numerous claims, based on local traditions, that 

 Whitney established and operated his first gin at this or that place, 

 and it has even been claimed that Wliitney's original workshop has 

 been found in what was called in his day, the "Upper Country." 

 Prof. M. B. Hammond, who published many of Whitney's letters from 

 correspondence and papers lent to him by Eli Whitney, Jr., says that 

 \Miitney did not leave the Greene plantation at Mulberry Grove 

 except to go to Savamiah, 12 miles away, to procure materials and 

 cotton. 



I have already mentioned Scarborough's statement that "The first 

 large gin set into operation by horsepower * * * is still in 

 existence at Mulberry Grove. "^^ Alaj. Nathaniel Pendleton stated 

 that he was one of the first persons who saw Whitney's gin when it 

 was first put in motion; that soon after 1793 "a machine house was 

 put up at Mulberry Grove by Mr. Phineas Miller and several of 

 these machines were worked in it by cattle, which I frequently saw." ^^ 



The Georgia Gazette for March 6, 1794, printed the following 

 advertisement: 



COTTON GINNING 



The subscriber will engage to gin in a manner equal to picking by hand, any 

 quantity of the green seed cotton, on the following terms, viz. for every five 



M Amer. Hist. Rev., vol. 3, p. 119, 1897. 



» Amer. Journ. Sci., and Arts, vol. 21, p. 226, January 1832. 



'« Report on the Agriculture and Geology of Mississippi, 1854, pp. 160-161. 



»' Southern Agriculturist, vol. 5, p. 399, August 1832. 



" Amer. Uist. Rev., vol. 3, p. 120, 1897. 



