previous year, he saw a pair of white silk stockings weighing four ounces, woven at Norwich in that state, in a loom made in the town; also a handkerchief made at Northfield, which weighed two and a half ounces both made of silk raised in New Haven and Northfield. Several dresses of beautiful changeable silk, of even and lustrous fabric and bright and fast colors, were the same year spun and woven from native cocoons in the family of Mr. Brandagee of Berlin. One of these, of red and black, was intended for the lady of General Washington, but for some reason was not presented.'

The manufacture of Linseed oil was commenced at Easton, Mass., and for a number of years, from an annual stock of three thousand bushels of seed, produced as many gallons of oil. Its price in Philadelphia at this time was 2s. 1d., and in London 2s. 3d. to 2s. 4d.

The Patent Law of 1790 was repealed, and a new act passed, (Feb. 21,) prescribing the formalities to be observed in obtaining letters patent, the rights of inventors and the fees to be paid, which were fixed at thirty dollars, exclusive of charges for copies of papers or drawings.

1793

In March, the Society for the promotion of Useful Arts of the State of New York was incorporated, and had its charter renewed 2d April, 1804. Early in the same year "The Lehigh Coal Mine Company" was formed to work the anthracite coal, recently found at Mauch Chunk, Pa.

About this time Almy, Brown & Slater, of Providence, built at Pawtucket a small cotton mill, (the first built by them, and long known as the Old Factory,) in which seventy-two spindles were employed, which were gradually increased as prospects became more encouraging. Into this mill Slater introduced such regulations as his experience in England taught him would most conduce to the comfort and efficiency of the operatives, and the success of the establishment. Among these was the system of Sabbath-school instruction, which had been twelve years or more in use in England, and for some years in the mills of Messrs.

(1) Holmes' Annals; Blydenburg's Silkworm, vol. 7.

(2) The attention given to the raising of flax seed for exportation in colonial times, caused the early erection of oil mills, which in some states and particularly in interior towns, remote from market, became quite numerous. The exportation of seed and also its manufacture into oil, was encouraged by various measures of the local legislatures. Oil making was at this time on the increase. It was commenced as early

as 1715 in New York, and in 1718 oil was produced in Connecticut by John Prout, Jr. The Moravians, Tunkers, and others in Pennsylvania also, erected oil mills at an early date, and in 1786 there were four within a few miles of Lancaster. Several in Winchester, Virginia, at the same date, paid 2s. and 2s. 6d. a bushel for flax seed. A writer in 1789 suggested its use for making soap, as it sold in Philadelphia for 4d. the pound, and for much less in the interior towns.

Strutt and Arkwright, in Derbyshire. These, which were the first of the kind in New England, as well as public worship and day schools, often supported at his own expense, were encouraged in connection with all the mills in which he was subsequently interested. This exerted a favorable influence upon the moral and intellectual character of the work-people, which in New England factories has ever since been well sustained. '

Conducive to the same end, was the establishment this year of a Mechanics' Library, in New Haven, Conn.; one of the earliest of these useful institutions.

A subscription to the amount of $25,000 was about this time made in the territory south of the Ohio, for the purpose of carrying on the cotton manufacture. The population of the territory was only 30,000 whites and 5,000 blacks.

The caterpillar, (noctua xylina,) cotton moth or chenille insect, which in 1788 destroyed 280 tons of cotton in the Bahamas, and afterward caused the culture of the gossypium to be abandoned in several of the West India Islands, first made its appearance this year in Georgia. It caused nearly a total destruction of the crop. From one field of 400 acres only eighteen bags were made.2

Committees of Congress to whom were referred petitions of the manufacturers of cordage, twines, lines, and pack-thread, in Philadelphia and Providence, and of printers and booksellers in Philadelphia, reported that the former branch was a most important manufacture in the United States, whether considered in reference to commerce and navigation, or the number of persons it employed. The exports of cordage were considerable and would probably increase. They recommended an allowance to exporters of domestic cordage equivalent to the duty on hemp, and an increased duty on cod or other lines. In addition to many paper mills then running, several large ones were building, and in preference to a reduction of duty on printers' paper, which the petitioners said was inconveniently scarce, they recommended that rags be exempted from duty on importation.

The political revolution in France having brought on a declaration of war against England and Holland, was followed during the early

(1) White's Mem. of Slater.-The general introduction of Sabbath-schools is believed to have done much to prepare the way for Mechanics' Institutions. Those established by Slater have been spoken of as the first in America. But a Sunday-school, probably the first in the world, was opened some years before the Revolution at Ephrata, in Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania, by Ludwig

Hoecker and others of the German Seventh Day Baptists, whose school-house was used as a hospital after the battle of Brandywine. A Sunday-school Society, under the presidency of Bishop White, was instituted in Philadelphia in 1791, and incorporated in 1796.

(2) Seabrook's Memoir of the Cotton Plant.

part of the year, by treaties between Great Britain, Russia, Spain, Prussia, and Germany, prohibiting the exportation of military and naval stores, grain and other provisions, from their ports to those of France. The proclamation by General Washington of strict neutrality in the contest, and the opening of the French colonial ports, enabled the United States to engross nearly the whole of the carrying trade of Europe, and gave an immense impulse to the foreign commerce and agriculture of the United States. The increased demand and high price during the next twenty years, of agricultural productions and shipping, attracted an unusual amount of capital into these branches, and in the same proportion withdrew it from manufacturing enterprises, with the exception of ship-building, which was increased to a degree unparalleled in any age or country. The tonnage of the United States at the close of this year, exceeded that of any other nation except Great Britain; and the increase alone of registered shipping, during the next fifteen years, amounted to 480,572 tons. In proportion to population, the United States had already taken rank as the most commercial nation. Its trade, in point of value, was only second to that of Great Britain. The exports were estimated at $33,026,233, an increase of more than one fourth over those of 1792, and they continued to increase during the war.

Peter Legaux, a Frenchman, having in 1787 commenced a vineyard with 150 plants from Burgundy and Champagne, at Spring Mill on the Schuylkill, in Montgomery county, had at this date 18,000 foreign and native vines growing. In consequence of his success, and upon his representations, the Legislature of Pennsylvania passed an act, to continue in force twenty years, authorizing the Governor to incorporate "The President, Managers, and Company, for promoting the cultivation of vines" in the state, so soon as 500 shares of twenty dollars each had been subscribed. Commissioners were appointed to open subscriptions, but failing to obtain the full amount, the time was extended by subsequent acts until 1802, when the company was organized with Mr. Legaux as chief vintner.1

Eli Whitney having, in November of the last year, turned his attention to the construction of a machine for cleaning cotton, completed his first working model of the saw gin. The cylinder was only two feet two inches in length and six in diameter. It was turned by hand by one person, and was capable of cleaning fifty pounds (after separation) of green seed cotton in a day. Mrs. Greene, the generous patron of the invention and the first instigator of the contrivance, eager to communicate the knowledge of an invention so important to the state, of which

(1) Laws of Pennsylvania, chaps. 1,653, 1,694, 2,110, 2,160.

the markets were then glutted with all the ordinary staples, and the negroes without employment, invited to her house gentlemen from different parts of the state. [The day after their arrival she conducted them to a temporary building erected for the machine, and they saw, with delight and astonishment, that more cotton could be separated in one day by a single hand, than could be done by the ordinary mode in many months. Its success being no longer doubtful, Mr. Phineas Miller, the husband of Mrs. Greene, (also of Connecticut, and a graduate of Yale College,) and the friend and patron of Whitney, entered into co-partnership with him for the purpose of maturing and patenting the machine at the expense of Mr. Miller. The articles provided that the profits and emoluments to be derived from patenting, making, vending, and working the same, should be mutually and equally shared between them." They immediately after commenced business; Mr. Whitney having repaired at once to Connecticut to complete the machine, obtain a patent, and manufacture and ship to Georgia, as many machines as would supply the demand. Application for a patent was made to Mr. Jefferson, then Secretary of State, who promised to grant it so soon as the model was lodged in the patent office. An affidavit of the invention was also filed, with the notary public of the city of New Haven. But the patent was not issued until the following March. Before this, however, and ere the inventor had reached Connecticut, in consequence of the imprudent exhibition of the machine above referred to, and the intense excitement created, encroachments upon the rights of the proprietors had already commenced. Intelligence of the invention had spread far and wide throughout the state, and multitudes came from all parts to see it. This privilege being properly denied them until a patent could be secured, some of the populace, unrestrained by law or justice, broke into the building by night and carried off the machine. A number of gins, with slight evasive deviations from the original, were constructed and put in operation before the patent was

A series of wholesale depredations upon the rights of the inventor, of which there are few such examples on record, was now commenced, and received little check either from the gratitude or the moral sense of the community. The unfortunate arrangement of Whitney and Miller, toward the close of the year, to erect gins throughout the cotton district, and engross the business of ginning for a toll of one third, instead of selling the machines and patent rights, stimulated the spirit of infringement. The operation was too extensive and complicated for the means of the proprietors, and was unsatisfactory to the planters. As a monopoly, it furnished a pretext and a market for an illegal manufacturer of the machines, which ultimately involved the

part of the year, by treaties between Great Britain, Russia, Spain, Prussia, and Germany, prohibiting the exportation of military and naval stores, grain and other provisions, from their ports to those of France. The proclamation by General Washington of strict neutrality in the contest, and the opening of the French colonial ports, enabled the United States to engross nearly the whole of the carrying trade of Europe, and gave an immense impulse to the foreign commerce and agriculture of the United States. The increased demand and high price during the next twenty years, of agricultural productions and shipping, attracted an unusual amount of capital into these branches, and in the same proportion withdrew it from manufacturing enterprises, with the exception of ship-building, which was increased to a degree unparalleled in any age or country. The tonnage of the United States at the close of this year, exceeded that of any other nation except Great Britain; and the increase alone of registered shipping, during the next fifteen years, amounted to 480,572 tons. In proportion to population, the United States had already taken rank as the most commercial nation. Its trade, in point of value, was only second to that of Great Britain. The exports were estimated at $33,026,233, an increase of more than one fourth over those of 1792, and they continued to increase during the war.

Peter Legaux, a Frenchman, having in 1787 commenced a vineyard with 150 plants from Burgundy and Champagne, at Spring Mill on the Schuylkill, in Montgomery county, had at this date 18,000 foreign and native vines growing. In consequence of his success, and upon his representations, the Legislature of Pennsylvania passed an act, to continue in force twenty years, authorizing the Governor to incorporate "The President, Managers, and Company, for promoting the cultivation of vines" in the state, so soon as 500 shares of twenty dollars each had been subscribed. Commissioners were appointed to open subscriptions, but failing to obtain the full amount, the time was extended by subsequent acts until 1802, when the company was organized with Mr. Legaux as chief vintner.'

Eli Whitney having, in November of the last year, turned his attention to the construction of a machine for cleaning cotton, completed his first working model of the saw gin. The cylinder was only two feet two inches in length and six in diameter. It was turned by hand by one person, and was capable of cleaning fifty pounds (after separation) of green seed cotton in a day. Mrs. Greene, the generous patron of the invention and the first instigator of the contrivance, eager to communicate the knowledge of an invention so important to the state, of which

(1) Laws of Pennsylvania, chaps. 1,653, 1,694, 2,110, 2,160.