COTTON GIN— LEWTON 5gl 



It is a fact of no small iaterest in connection with the history of Augusta that 

 Whitney manufactured his gins at a little factory, the power of which was furnished 

 by the little Rocky Creek on the plantation of the late Mr. John Phinizy, now 

 almost included in the present boundaries of the city. (From address of Mayor 

 Joseph B. Gumming on occasion of Celebration of Municipal Centennial of the 

 City of Augusta.) " 



After the gin was invented, Whitney established his machines in various places 

 in Georgia for the purpose of buying and ginning cotton. One of these was near 

 Augusta, about two miles south of the city. The dam is still seen which held the 

 water to furnish the power. (Lucian Lamar Knight, 1914.) '* 



An arrangement in chronological order of the published corre- 

 spondence of Eli Whitney and documented statements of his place of 

 residence, from the faU of 1792 until the middle of 1805 shows plainly 

 that Eli Whitney himself carried on his activities and experiments 

 in New Haven except for a few very brief periods at Mulberry Grove, 

 or when he was engaged with law suits at Savannah, He could not in 

 person have carried on the activities attributed to him by local tradi- 

 tions in numerous locaUties. These activities doubtless were carried 

 on by Phineas Miller, acting for the firm of Miller & Whitney, until 

 his death on December 7, 1803. 



V. SUMMARY 



A recent study of some of Eli Whitney's correspondence with his 

 father, his partner, and others; the rediscovery of numerous early 

 accounts of his activities in the South; and the recent examination 

 of several original models of the gin, have thro%vn some new light on 

 the history of Whitney's famous invention. They mdicate several 

 mistakes and misconceptions in documents hitherto beheved to be 

 correct. 



In view of the destruction of the original patent papers and the 

 original working model which was filed with Whitney's application 

 for his patent, it is believed worth while to redescribe that model, 

 and to point out that accurate copies of the patent and specifications 

 of the machine are still in existence. 



A careful examination of these documents does not disclose the 

 use of gin saws, or of a cylinder built with teeth cut in plates of metal. 



It is pointed out that what is understood to be the "Whitney patent" 

 is a series of steps and documents which need to be taken together 

 and considered as a whole to determine just what was covered by 

 a patent granted to Eli Whitney on March 14, 1794. These steps 

 may be arranged in the following order: 



1. First application for a patent made to Thomas Jefferson, Secre- 

 tary of State, June 20, 1793. 



2. Forwarding of a drawing to Jefferson, October 19, 1793. 



" Georgia Hist. Quart., vol. 1, p. 228, September 1917. 



»* Georgia's Land-Marks, Memorials and Legends, vol. 2, p. 968, 1914. 



31508—38 37 



