1845. COTTON GIN, Practicability of.—
As the State of Virginia * * * carries
on household manufactures of cotton to a
great extent, as I also do myself, and one of
our great embarrassments is the clearing the
cotton of the seed, I feel a considerable interest
in the success of your invention, for
family use. Permit me, therefore, to ask
information from you on these points. Has
the machine been thoroughly tried in the ginning
of cotton, or is it yet but a machine of
theory? What quantity of cotton has it
cleared on an average of several days, and
worked by hand, and by how many hands?
What will be the cost of one of them, made
to be worked by hand? Favorable answers
to these questions would induce me to engage
one of them.—
To Eli Whitney.
Ford ed., vi, 448.
(G.
Nov. 1793)
