[Illustration:  WHITNEY WATCHING THE FIRST COTTON-GIN]

Mrs. Greene being confidentially informed of his plans, provided him with a room in the cellar of her house, where he could carry on his work in secret.  All that winter he worked at it, with a patience and energy which could not fail of success.  Many difficulties confronted him.  To carry on his work successfully, he needed tools of a certain description, which were not to be had in Savannah, or even in Charleston, upon any terms.  But when was the genius of a Yankee ever baffled by difficulties?  Whitney’s mechanical skill came to his aid, and he conquered this obstacle by manufacturing all the implements he needed.  He wanted wire, but none was to be found, and he was compelled to make all that he used.  A score or more of drawbacks presented themselves, and were overcome in this way, and all through the winter the young inventor applied himself with diligence to his task.  The children and servants regarded him with the greatest curiosity.  They heard him hammering and sawing in his room, the doors of which were always kept locked, and into which they were never allowed to enter.  Mrs. Greene was kept fully informed of his progress.  When sure of success, Whitney revealed the secret to a Mr. Miller, a gentleman of means, who consented to enter into a copartnership with him for the manufacture of the machines, after the completion of the model should have enabled Whitney to secure a patent for his invention.

Whitney had hoped to keep his work secret from all others, but this proved to be impossible.  It became rumored about the country that the young man from New England, who was living at Mrs. Greene’s, was engaged in inventing a machine which would clean cotton with the rapidity of thought, and the most intense eagerness was manifested to see the wonderful production, which every one felt would entirely revolutionize cotton culture in the South.  Whitney endeavored to guard his invention from the public curiosity, but without success.  Before he had completed his model, some scoundrels broke into the place containing it, and carried it off by night.  He succeeded in recovering it, but the principle upon which it depended was made public, and before the model was completed and a patent secured, a number of machines based on his invention had been surreptitiously made, and were in operation.

In spite of this discouraging circumstance, Whitney brought his invention to perfection, and in the spring of 1793 set up his first cotton gin, under a shed on Mrs. Greene’s plantation, and invited a number of the neighboring planters to witness its operation.