similar acts of vandalism are in striking contrast. 

 Whitney's gin was stolen by planters for use in hasten- 

 ing their work; Margrave's and Kay's spinning- and 

 weaving -machines were destroyed by mobs of work- 

 men because they worked too fast. 



Nevertheless, Whitney succeeded in bringing his 

 specifications before the proper authorities and secured 

 his patents. Later he returned to New Haven, Con- 

 necticut, and opened a factory for manufacturing his 

 machines. Congress finally voted him $50,000; but 

 as he became involved in litigation over his patent for 

 several years, he realized, in the end, little or no finan- 

 cial gain for his great service to mankind. This is the 

 more deplorable as his title as sole inventor seems to 

 stand undisputed, and as his gin has proved such a boon 

 to civilization "more important in the history of the 

 United States than all of its wars and treaties," as an 

 English admirer of Whitney said a century later. How 

 completely the inventor had solved the problem from 

 the very first is attested by the fact that the modern 

 gins used on American plantations are still of the Whit- 

 ney type, very slightly modified. 



When the cotton comes from the gin it is taken imme- 

 diately to the presses and pressed into bales weighing 

 about five hundred pounds. From these it is passed 

 on to the "compressor," where it is still further re- 

 duced in bulk by enormous pressure ranging from one- 

 thousand to fifteen hundred pounds to the square inch, 

 the thickness of the bale being reduced to about four 

 feet, six or seven inches. It is then secured with half a 

 dozen iron hoops, and is ready for shipment to the mills. 



