Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-11-27

ships, though 1 once contrIved q canal boat,
the model of which is down in the Patent
Office, and the great excellence of which
was that 1t could run where there was no
water. I will tell you what will do; I
will meet you tomorrow at 10 o'clock at
the Office of Commodore Smith, head of the
Naval Bureau, and We will talk it all
over"
Next morning the meeting took place ac-
cording to appointment, and beside the
President and Secretary Wells, there were
present many of the most able and inhuen-
tial officers of the navy. Mr. LWinslow at
once entered with enthusiasm into an ex-
position of Captain Ericsson's invention,
and before he was through it was apparent
that he had made q profound impression
upon his audience When Mr.. Winslow
had finished the President turned to Com
modore Smith and said: "Well, Commo-
dore, what do you think of it?" The Com
modore's reply was general and non-com-
initial, whereupon the President, rising
from the box upon which he had been sit
sing. added, "Well, I think there is some
thing in it, as the girl said when she put
her leg in the stocking. Good morning,
gentlemen.
AS result of this interview q contract
was signed for vessel built upon Erics-
sons plans, to be put in the hands of the
navy within a hundred days, at . cost of
S275, 1000 How we'll this contract was kept
and with what benefcent and sweeping re-
suits to the nation and the world is known
to all.
No invention has played larger part In
our history than the cotton gin, which was
the work of Eli Whitney. Whitney was
the son of poor Massachusetts farmer
and worked his way through college with
out assistance. Soon after the Revolution
he settled in Georgia and became teacher
to the children of Mrs. Nathaniel Greene,
widow of the famous General Greene. On.
day when company of planters were
assembled at Mrs. Greene's house near
Savannah, the depressed condition of the
Southern States came up for discussion,
and it was generally agreed that the chief
was the difficulty of raising cotton with
profit, owing to the great labor of sepa-
rating the fibers of the cotton from the
seed.
He Could Make Anything.
One of the planters suggested that per-
haps this work could be done with q ma
chine, and this prompted Mrs Greene to
remark, "Gentlemen, apply to my young
friend, Mr.. Whitney. He can make any-
thing" Whitney was sent for and the sit
uation explained to him. He told the
u
in his life, but he would try what he could
do. Next day he procured some unclean
cotton, shut himself up in his room and set
to work to invent athe machine required i
From early boyhood he had exhibited won-
derfu skill in mechanics, and this aptitude
was of the greatest assistance to him in his
present task. He was compelled to make
the tools and the wire with which he
worked, but before the winter had ended he
had completed his machine.
Then he set it up in a shed and invited a
number of planters to come and see 1t work.
The delight of his visitors at what they saw
was unbounded. Whitney's engine could
clean as much cotton in one day as . man
could clean in . whole winter, and while
before 1t had required the constant labor OF
100 hands for several months to separate the
seed from the cotton grown on . large plan
tation, 1t could now be done In few days
It was In this way that the eotton-gin came
into the world RUFUS r WILSON.