5(J2 ANNUAL KEI'ORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1937 



3. Declaration before the New Haven notary public, Elizur Good- 

 rich, October 28, 1793, that he, Eli Whitney, believed himself to be 

 the original inventor of a machine to separate the green seed cotton 

 from its seeds, and the filing with the notary pubUc of a detailed 

 description of the invention. 



4. The filing of a workmg model of the macliine as requested in 

 Jefferson's letter of November 16, 1793. 



5. The filing by Whitney of a description of his invention written 

 in his own words. 



6. The granting of the patent signed by George Washington on 

 March 14, 1794, for an exclusive right to the use and sale of his in- 

 vention for 14 years from November 6, 1793. 



It has been shown that before the fire of December 15, 1836, when 

 the originals of all these documents (except possibly the first and the 

 third) were destroyed, certified copies or descriptions were filed else- 

 where. Of the documents above mentioned, copies of the third and 

 sLxth were filed in the Circuit Court at Savannah, Ga., in 1804; the 

 fifth document and a drawing of the model were published in a periodi- 

 cal in 1823; the third, fifth, and sLxth documents were in 1841 copied 

 at the Patent Office into the first volume of Restored Patents ap- 

 parently from copies on file in the Office of the wSecrctary of State, the 

 third document, however, being labeled "Not patented" in the Patent 

 OfiSce copy. 



It has been pointed out that several models of Whitnej^'s gin are in 

 existence, that two of these are from a group of five models made 

 by Wliitney himself, or under his direction, before 1800. These two 

 models have been described and compared with an illustration of the 

 origmal model made by Whitney and filed with his application for 

 his patent at the end of 1793. This illustration was published in 

 1823, 13 years before the original model was destroyed by fire. 



Whitney's partner, Phineas Miller, advertised early in 1794, even 

 before "VMiitney was granted his patent, that he would "engage to gin 

 in a manner equal to picking by hand, any quantity of the green seed 

 cotton," and promised that gins for this purpose would "actually be 

 erected in different parts of the country before the harvest of the 

 ensuing crop." 



This energetic partner did carry out his promise, and while Whitney 

 was in New Haven, Conn., building gins as fast as he could. Miller 

 sought out water power sites at points where the green seed cotton was 

 being cultivated. These sites were usually purchased for the partner- 

 ship, but sometimes the titles to the properties were recorded in his 

 own name, as one of his letters to WTiitney indicates. Within 2 years 

 he had 30 gins in operation at 8 different places in Georgia. As time 

 went on, rivalry developed among local points, which now claim the 

 distinction of being the place where the AMiitney gin was first operated. 



