Perplexities and discouragements dogged their steps from the start. In 1795 the shop which they had built in New Haven, together with all machines and papers, was consumed by fire. In the diary of President Stiles of Yale College is an entry: “March 12 (1795). Yesterday morning Mr. Whitney’s workshop consumed by fire. Loss 3000 Dol. about 10 finished machines for seeding cotton & 5 or 6 unfinished, & all the tools which no man can make but Mr. Whitney, the inventor, & which he has been 2 years in making.” They found great difficulty in raising money, even at rates from 12 to 25 per cent. With these misfortunes upon them, word was received from England that the manufacturers condemned the cotton cleaned by their machines on the ground that the staple was injured. They had thirty gins at work in eight different places in Georgia and many of these were brought to a standstill. It was nearly two years before this prejudice could be overcome. By that time, however, encroachments on their patent right had become so extensive as almost to annihilate its value. The first infringement suit was tried in 1797 and went against them. An appeal was denied on technicalities.[174] At a second trial, in 1798, a great number of witnesses had been collected from various parts of the country, some of them from one hundred miles away, when the judge failed to appear, and, of course, no court was held.[175] Mr. Miller writes in 1799 that “the prospect of making anything by ginning in this State, is at an end. Surreptitious gins are being erected in every part of the country; and the jurymen at Augusta have come to an understanding among themselves, that they will never give a verdict in our favor, let the merits of the case be as they may.”[176] The firm would now gladly have relinquished their plan of doing the ginning themselves and confined their operations to the sale of patent rights; but few people would buy a patent right which could be used with impunity without purchase. [174] _Ibid._, p. 26. [175] _Ibid._, p. 27. [176] _Ibid._, p. 27.