An equal division, between the owners of
the invention on the one hand and the cotton growers on the
other, of all the super-added wealth arising from the invention,
seemed to him fair. Apparently the full meaning of such an
arrangement did not enter his mind. Perhaps Miller and Whitney
did not see at first that the new invention would cause a
veritable industrial revolution, or that the system they planned,
if it could be made effective, would make them absolute masters
of the cotton country, with the most stupendous monopoly in the
world. Nor do they appear to have realized that, considering the
simple construction of their machine and the loose operation of
the patent law at that time, the planters of the South would
never submit to so great a tribute as they proposed to exact.
Their attempt in the first instance to set up an unfair monopoly
brought them presently into a sea of troubles, which they never
passed out of, even when they afterwards changed their tack and
offered to sell the machines with a license, or a license alone,
at a reasonable price.
* Tompkins, "Cotton and Cotton Oil", p. 86.
Misfortune pursued the partners from the beginning. Whitney
writes to his father from New Haven in May, 1794, that his
machines in Georgia are working well, but that he apprehends
great difficulty in manufacturing them as fast as they are
needed.
Pages:
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59