HISTORY OF THE COTTON GIN. 307 



at the time when the first cotton crop was maturing for the new 

 machine, and when Miller was writing to Whitney that within 

 a year from that time from fifty to a hundred gins must 

 be completed and transported to the south. He adds, " The 

 people of the country are running mad for them, and much 

 can be said to justify their importunity. When the present 

 crop is harvested, there will be a real property of at least fifty 

 thousand dollars lying useless, unless we can enable the hold- 

 ers to bring it to market." 



Early in the year following, on arriving at New Haven, 

 from New York, where he had been detained by a lingering 

 illness, he was informed that on the day before, his shop, with 

 all his machinery and papers, had been consumed by fire. At 

 this time, under the pressure of necessity, (which is the 

 mother of all sorts of inventions, some of which are not the 

 most honest) the necessity arising from the increased culture 

 of cotton, which had been immensely stimulated by the pros- 

 pect from the invention, two rival machines appeared in the 

 field to dispute the claims of Whitney's. The one of these 

 was the roller-gin, which, though it executed the work of 

 cleansing the cotton very imperfectly, yet, in the exigency, 

 found many advocates. At all events, it diverted the atten- 

 tion of the public from Whitney's patented machine, and 

 weakened their moral sense in respect to any peculiar claims 

 on his part. The other was the saw-gin, which applied one 

 of the principles peculiar to Whitney's, with this difference, 

 that the teeth were cut from a continuous plate of metal, in- 

 stead of being inserted as wires. This idea, by the way, had 

 occurred early to Whitney, as was established afterwards by 

 legal proof. Here, then, was a machine which was really his, 

 and against which he brought his suits, and at last enforced 

 the rights of his patent. But as yet, and for years, while the 

 question was undecided, this was as good as the patent one, 



