The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1894-06-06
BILL ARP's LETTER.
Be Wants to Know Who Patented the
Cotton Gin,
Atlanta Constitution.

/
Be Wants to Know Who Patented the
Cotton Gin,
Ae1amed Constitution.
Now that the Young Mems Library
Association of Atlanta have organized
a historical department to search out
and preserve the history of Georgia,
let me commend to them the history
of the cotton gin. If Ell Whitney
was pirate who robbed and defraud=
ed the true inventor, then let it be
known and chronicled. It seems to
be well established that he brought
sixty suits in Georgia for violation of
his patent, and that he recovered in
only one of them; that the neighbors
broke into his workshop and destroyed
his model, and that he moved back to
Connecticut and made a new one
| that the State of Georgia refused to
honor his claim as the inventor and
never gave him dollar. There was
some reason for this. Our people are
| not slow to reward merit, and would
give honor to whom honor is due.
Please publish the following letter
and let the committee on Georgia his
tory investigate. The invention of
the cotton gin is a bigger thing in the
world progress than the invention Of
the spinning jenny by Arkwright:
The writer of this letter is too we'll
known and too highly related to be
ignored or treated with indifference.
Our Georgia inventors and discoverers
have been most shamefully treated by
Northern pirates, who, for century,
have been on the watch for everything
that would put dollar in their pock-
cts. Our people have never locked up
anything nor concealed it., and hence
these spies who hang around the
patent Office and understand all it's
mysterious machinery have been able
to step in and get the advantage of
our inventions. It is said that Rev.
F. r. Goulding, the author Of "Young
Marooners," was really the inventor
of the sewing machine. It is very
certain that William Longstreet, the
father of A. B. Longstreet, of Geor-
gia fame, was the inventor Of propell-
ing boats by steam. The State records
show that on September rs, 1870, he
addressed letter to Governor Tel
fair, asking his assistance and that of
the Legislature in raising funds to
construct boat to be propelled by
steam. This was three years before
Fulton wrote his letter to the earl of
Stanhope announcing his discovery.
As Longstreet failed to obtain public
aid, he had to wait until he secured
private aid, and he did at last build
and propel boat on the Savannah
river that moved against the current
at the rate of FIVE miles an hour. But
Fulton beat him to the patent Office
and got all the honor. Longstreet
also invented the breast roller of the
cotton gin that entirely superseded
the old method.
Then there was Dr., Crawford W.
Long, of Jefferson, Ga, who in De-
cember, 1914, demonstrated the great
principle of anaesthesia and actually
used it in his practice for two years
before ever Morton and jackson and
Wells pretended to discover it; but
those men slipped down to Washing
ton, as usual, and made great to-do
over it and put in for large rewards.
They quarreled among themselves as
to who was the discoverer, notwith-
standing they were dentists in part
nership. jackson got ahead some
way, and Morton was ignored by the
people Of Boston and his business was
ruined-ruined because he tried to
steal from Jackson what Jackson had
stolen from Long. I remember we'll
when Morton's lethean, as it was
called, was first introduced in, Athens,
Ca, in 1916. I was in college there,
and while suffering from decayed
tooth went to dentist by the name
of Lombard, who asked me if | was
willing to have the lethean admins
tered. I consented, and the tooth
was extracted while [ was unconsci-
GUS. Soon after leaving his office,
and while still partially drunk from
the ether, my friend and | met Pro
fessor Mckay, and I reeled up to him
and said, "Good morning, old Mack. "
That was his familiar name among the
students. He seemed much astonish
ed and asked my friend where I got
my whiskey. My friend explained to
him, and he smiled and passed on.
At that very time DR.. Long claimed
that the discovery was his, and not
Morton's. 1t was not then in general
use, but seemed to be confined to the
dentist for extracting teeth.
But, about the cotton gin and Whit
ney's claim to it, I know that your
readers will be interested in Mrs.
Laura Jones McNabb's letter, which
is as follows:
"Bainbridge, Ca, May 16, 1884,
Major Charles Fl. Smith, Gainesville,
Ga. Dear Sir: I always feel like
entering protest against Eli Whitney
as the inventor of the cotton gin, but,
having no proof Of what 1 know are
facts, I have kept silent. Miss
Boggs's letter, however, encourages
me to write you the information [ have,
which, though rather vague, is some
thing more than an impression.
''Early in the seventies my grand
mother, Mrs. Martha Moseley Jones,
who had lived for forty years at Wash
ington, Wilkes county, came to live
with us at Kirkwood. [ heard my
father, DR.. Joseph Jones, ask her
where those cotton gin papers were,
saying he wished to present them to
the Young Mems Library in Atlanta.
She replied: Il burned them, with
many other old things that no one
cared for but myself. My father was
very much troubled about it, saying !:
why, that was the only proof we had
that Uncle Watkins, and not Eli
Whitney, was the inventor of the cot
ton gin
"Mr. Watkins was my grandmoth-
cr's brother-in-law, and she came into
possession of the papers at his wife S
death. She died at LaGrangc, Ga,
having married Judge Harris, of that