14 



It is submitted that, as to the method of draft, the Protest is ut- 

 terly misleading and the conclusions drawn therefrom must fall. 



(2) General Plan of the Machines. McCormick's machine was 

 mounted on two wheels, a main wheel which supported the greater 

 part of the weight of the machine, gave motion to the crank, recipro- 

 cated the knife and revolved the reel, and a grain wheel at the outer 

 end of the platform. Hussey's machine had three wheels at the stub- 

 ble side, all of which rested upon the ground. The tongue was piv- 

 oted loosely to the machine like the usual farm wagon tongue. The 

 platform was rigidly projected to the side, as shown in the picture. It 

 is plain, therefore, that it could not follow the inequalities of the 

 ground, and that any obstruction encountered by the wheels would 

 throw it up and down, leaving a washboard stubble. Hussey's patent 

 provided, however, that if a wide platform was to be used the machine 

 should have four wheels, the extra one at the outer end .of the platform. 

 It is evident that such a construction must have drawn as heavy as a 

 stone-boat. (See Fig. 2, taken from Ardrey's " American Agricultural 

 Implements.") Simply to reciprocate the knife and draw the machine 

 took four horses on the trot. 



HUSSEY'S REAPER, 1833. 



The McCormick construction is identical with that found in 

 modern reapers. The machine had a stiff pole, as have the reapers of 

 to-day, and balanced over the wheels, thus handling like a cart and 

 conforming to the surface of the ground. The weight was positioned 

 largely about the drive-wheel, thus giving power to move the operative 

 parts of the machine. McCormick stated this construction very con- 

 cisely in the following language, fifty years ago : 



" The general arrangement by which the machine was balanced 

 upon two wheels, perhaps nine-tenths of the whole weight being- 

 thrown upon the one behind the draft, thereby attaching the horses in 

 front and at one side without the use of the separate two-wheeled cart 

 for the purpose of controlling the running of the machine upon its two 



