Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 377
the State. Together with his partner, a man named Durhee, he erected
at this place a large cotton store house, which in 1870 served as a barn
for Mrs. Tom Burdett. The gin house had narrow grated windows so
that visitors might stand outside and watch the cotton flying from the
gin, without observing the operations of the machines, which was con
cealed behind a lower screen. On the occasion of a militia muster in
the neighborhood, the rustic batallion was permitted to file through the
house, while Whitney's gin was in operation, and see the flakes of cotton
thrown off by the brushes, but no one was allowed to examine further.
"Women were permitted by Whitney to enter his gin house and
examine the machine, if they liked, as they *were not supposed to be
capable of betraying the secret to builders—an opinion for which mod
ern females of the strong-minded school, will no doubt bear him a.
grudge—and not altogether without reason when we consider the ma
terial assistance he received from a woman in perfecting his invention.
This fact of the free admission of women was used to advantage by
Edward Lyon, a smooth-faced youth residing at a distance, to gain ad
mission to Whitney's establishment, disguised in female attire. He
communicated the secret to his brother John, who immediately set to
work and produced his improvement on Whitney's invention, in the
shape of the modern saw gin. The saws were made for him by Billy
McPerrin, an Irish blacksmith in Wilkes County, who died some twenty-
five or thirty years ago. This was the first gin ever made. The saws
were constructed in semicircles and fastened around the cylinder in
pairs, so as to form complete circles when finished.
"As early as 1797, a gin factory was established in 'Georgia by a
man named McCloud, and Whitney's lawsuits against him were all un
successful. An old gentleman who purchased a gin from McCloud told
my father years later that even then it worked as well as new. It was.
propelled by water, and ginned 2,500 pounds of seed cotton per day.
Previous to this, the gin in ordinary use was an arrangement of two-
wooden rollers, revolving in opposite directions, which preceded Mr.
Whitney's invention. It was worked by hand, and ginned only from
75 to 100 pounds per day, and a man had to be, constantly employed in
turning rollers, the friction burnt out so fast. This machine is still
used in ginning the best qualities of sea-island cotton, the advantage
being that it does not cut the staple as the saw gins do.
"The honor of having invented the first cotton gin is sometimes dis
puted with Eli Whitney in favor of Mr. Bull, a gentleman from Balti
more, who settled in Columbia County, Georgia, and introduced the
saw gin there in 1795. He first used perpendicular saws, but afterwards:
changed them for circular ones in imitation no doubt of Whitney and
Lyon. Mr. Bull was an enterprising and ingenious man, and the first
to introduce iron packing screws into this State.* Costing from $1,500
. * Says Miss Andrews in a letter to the author: "The only iron packing screw
of this kind I remeniber ever to have seen was still in use a few years ago on a
plantation of Mr. Gabriel Toombs. I am inclined to think it was, if not one of
those introduced "by Colonel Bull, at least made upon his model, "but for this I cannot
vouch. I am trying to trace its origin, but without much headway, I fear. It Is-
considerably smaller than the tall 01d wooden screws that were so common in my
youth.''