50 JETHRO WOOD; 



Benjamin, who received the invention as a 

 legacy, continued his efforts to wrest justice 

 from the unwilling hand of the law. Nearly 

 all his father's failures had proceeded from the 

 inadequacy of the patent laws, which were 

 almost worthless to protect the rights of the 

 inventor. Even now a patent is worth little 

 until it it has been fought through the Supreme 

 Court of the United States. In those days so 

 many obstacles were thrown in the way of in- 

 ventors, and the combinations against them 

 were so formidable, that Eli Whitney, in try- 

 ing to establish his right to the cotton-gin in 

 a Georgia court, while his machine was doub- 

 ling and trebling the value of lands through 

 the State, had this experience, which is given 

 in his own words : I had great difficulty in 

 proving that the machine had been used in 

 Georgia, although at the same moment there 

 were three separate sets of this machinery in 

 motion within fifty yards of the building in 



