Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

376 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS .
'Madam, you have solved the problem. With this suggestion, my ma
chine is complete.' "
The following letter from Mrs. Nightingale, widow of Phineas M.
Nightingale, of Dungeness, corroborates in every particular the account
given by Miss Andrews. It reads as follows:
"Brunswick, Ga., January 20, 1892.
"Dear Miss Andrews:
" I am very sorry not to have been able to send an earlier response to>
your letter about Mr. Whitney and the cotton gin. I do not remember
much about the particulars of his visit to Savannah, but I am sure of a
few things. Mr. Miller was the tutor of Mrs. Greene 's children and Mr.
Whitney was his friend, and it was during his residence i.n Mrs. Greene's.
house, near Savannah, that he undertook, at her suggestion, to invent a
machine that would separate the sea-island cotton seed from the lint,,
more rapidly and effectively than by hand, which was a very slow
process. Mrs. Greene and Mr. Miller were the first persons to whom he 1
displayed his model. It lacked one thing—a contrivance to throw off'
the lint when separated from the seed. Mrs. Greene saw the want at
once and, snatching up a clothes brush, she applied it to the teeth and',
caught the lint. Mr. Whitney was delighted. 'Madam,' said he, 'with
your suggestion, my machine is complete.' Mrs. Greene married Mr..
Miller and they built the Dungeness house, i. e., the original mansion
finished in 1803. General Greene had.selected the site and made ar
rangements for building before his death. With my kindest regards,.
I am, Very truly yours,
"MARY K. NIGHTINGALE."
'' The important part thus played by a woman in the history of the-
cotton gin is unknown, I believe, except as a family tradition, even in her
own State. My father was also informed by a gentleman once connected
with Whitney in business, that the latter obtained his first idea of the
invention, from a machine used to prepare rags for making paper, which
he saw on a wrecked vessel. Unfortunately for Mr. Whitney, the predic
tion with regard to the fortune in store for the future inventor of the-
cotton gin was not realized, for he was engaged in constant lawsuits,
against infringements of his patent rights, and lived and died poor. As.
a Georgian, I regret to say that his adopted State has never bestowed any
substantial token of appreciation upon the inventor of a machine by
which she has so largely profited. Tennessee, Alabama, and South Caro
lina, manifested their appreciation of his merits by substantial donations,,
while Georgia—with sorrow I write it—has been worse than silent, for
her juries refused him verdicts to which the judges declared him en
titled, against the violators of his patent.
"So uncertain was the enforcement of the patent laws in those days,
that Whitney resorted to the same expedient for the protection of his.
rights that, in medieval times, used to invite charges of sorcery and
witchcraft; I mean the expedient of secrecy.
"About the year 1794 or 1795, Whitney established a ginnery at
Smyrna about six miles from Washington, in Wilkes County, Georgia.
This was one of the first, if not the very first cotton gin ever worked iru