CYRUS HALL McCORMICK 



failure. It did cut the grain fairly well, but 

 flung it in a tangled heap. As much as this had 

 been done before by other machines, and it was 

 not enough. To cut the grain was only one- 

 half of the problem; the other half of the prob- 

 lem, which up to this time no one had solved, 

 was how to properly handle and deliver the 

 grain after it was cut. 



By this time Cyrus had become as much of a 

 Reaper enthusiast as his father. Also, he had 

 been studying out the reasons for his father's 

 failure, and working out in his mind a new plan 

 of construction. How this new plan was slowly 

 moulded into shape by his creative fancy is now 

 told for the first time. A manuscript, written 

 by Cyrus H. McCormick himself, and which 

 has not hitherto been made public, gives a com- 

 plete description of the process of thought by 

 which he became the inventor of the first prac- 

 tical Reaper. This account, it may be said in 

 explanation, was written by Mr. McCormick 

 shortly before the Chicago fire of 1871. It 

 was to be published at that time, and was in 

 type when the fire came and left not a vestige 



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