In March of the following year he writes again, saying
that his factory in New Haven has been destroyed by fire: "When I
returned home from N. York I found my property all in ashes! My
shop, all my tools, material and work equal to twenty finished
cotton machines all gone. The manner in which it took fire is
altogether unaccountable." Besides, the partners found themselves
in distress for lack of capital. Then word came from England that
the Manchester spinners had found the ginned cotton to contain
knots, and this was sufficient to start the rumor throughout the
South that Whitney's gin injured the cotton fiber and that cotton
cleaned by them was worthless. It was two years before this ghost
was laid. Meanwhile Whitney's patent was being infringed on every
hand. "They continue to clean great quantities of cotton with
Lyon's Gin and sell it advantageously while the Patent ginned
cotton is run down as good for nothing," writes Miller to Whitney
in September, 1797. Miller and Whitney brought suits against the
infringers but they could obtain no redress in the courts.
Whitney's attitude of mind during these troubles is shown in his
letters. He says the statement that his machines injure the
cotton is false, that the source of the trouble is bad cotton,
which he ventures to think is improved fifty per cent by the use
of his gin, and that it is absurd to say that the cotton could be
injured in any way in the process of cleaning.
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