Then word came from England that the Manchester spinners had found the ginned cotton to contain knots, and this was sufficient to start the rumor throughout the South that Whitney's gin injured the cotton fiber and that cotton cleaned by them was worthless.
It was two years before this ghost was laid.

Meanwhile Whitney's patent was being infringed on every hand.

"They continue to clean great quantities of cotton with Lyon's Gin and sell it advantageously while the Patent ginned cotton is run down as good for nothing," writes Miller to Whitney in September, 1797.

Miller and Whitney brought suits against the infringers but they could obtain no redress in the courts.
Whitney's attitude of mind during these troubles is shown in his letters.

He says the statement that his machines injure the cotton is false, that the source of the trouble is bad cotton, which he ventures to think is improved fifty per cent by the use of his gin, and that it is absurd to say that the cotton could be injured in any way in the process of cleaning.