294 COTTON PLANTER'S MANUAL. 



against Bull and others who were using his gins in the United 

 States Court, as the records of that Court at Savannah will, I 

 presume, show. These suits were never tried, as it was un- 

 derstood that Bull was prepared to prove by reliable and 

 incontrovertible testimony that his gin was his own invention 

 and was no infringement of Whitney's rights under his' patent ; 

 and I have Judge Bull's authority for saying that Whitney 

 offered his father ten thousand dollars to suffer a judgment to 

 be rendered against him, which he refused. 



When Bull first put his gin in operation he ginned for the 

 fourth, and excluded all male visitors, but females who were 

 prompted by motives of curiosity to see it, were admitted. 

 Some one who was a mechanic or a machinist introduced him- 

 self in the disguise of an old woman and with a walking stick 

 on which its measure in inches was obscurely marked, ob- 

 tained the dimensions of the machine and with the knowledge 

 thus surreptitiously procured, constructed a gin on the same 

 model. 



That Whitney was entitled to the credit of the invention 

 which he patented is probable, but that Bull was the first to 

 introduce the saw gin the prototype of the gin now in use 

 I have not the least doubt. Whitney's name has ever been 

 and will always be connected with this great and important 

 invention, and it is to be regretted that Bull's claim to the 

 honor of an invention which has excited such a wonderful 

 influence in controlling the commerce of the world, and has 

 contributed so much to the comforts and the wants of man- 

 kind, cannot, owing to the lapse of years, be successfully vin- 

 dicated. 



After his extraordinary success in constructing a machine 

 for ginning cotton, Bull went to New York and had two iron 

 screws cast for pressing cotton. They were employed in the 

 city of Augusta in repacking cotton for shipment. These 



