214 Memoir of the Life of Eli Whitney, 



In July 1794, Mr. Whitney was confined by a severe illness, from 

 which he recovered slowly; but his business received a still farther 

 interruption from a very fatal sickness, (the scarlet fever) which pre- 

 vailed in New Haven during this year, and which attacked a number 

 of his workmen. 



Under all these discouragements, Mr. Miller was constantly wri- 

 ting the most urgent letters from Georgia, to press forward the man- 

 ufacture of machines. '• Do not let a deficiency of money, do not 

 let any thing (says Mr. Miller) hinder the speedy construction of the 

 Gins. The people of the country are almost running mad for them, 

 and much can be said to justify their importunity. When the pres- 

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

 fifty thousand, yes of a hundred thousand dollars, lying useless, un- 

 less we can enable the holders to bring it to market. Pray remem- 

 ber that we must have from fifty to one hundred gins between this 

 and another fall,* if there are any workmen in New England, or in 

 the Middle States, to make them. In two years we will begin to take 

 long steps up hill, in the business of patent ginning, fortune favoring." 



The general resort of the planters to the cultivation of cotton, 

 and its consequent production in vast quantities, the value of which 

 depended entirely upon the chance of getting it cleaned by the gin, 

 created great uneasiness, which first displayed itself in this pressure' 

 upon Miller & Whitney, and afterwards afforded great encourage- 

 ment to the marauders upon the patent right, who were now be- 

 coming numerous and audacious. 



The roZZer gi7i, was at first the most formidable competitor, with 

 Whitney's Machine. It extricated the seeds by means of rollers, 

 crushing them between revolving cylinders, instead of disengaging 

 them by means of teeth. The fragments of seeds which remained 

 in the cotton, rendered its execution much inferior in this respect to 

 Whitney's Gin, and it vvas also much slower in its operation. Great 

 efforts were made, however, to create an impression in favor of its 

 superiority in other respects, to which we shall advert by and by. 



But a still more formidable rival appeared early in the year 1795, 

 under the name of the Saiv Gin. It was Whitney's gin, except that 

 the teeth were cut in circular rims of iron, instead of being made 

 of wires, as was the case in the earlier forms of the patent gin. The 



This letter is dated Oct. 26, 1794. 



