33 



not successful will be seen from the fact that Crosskill subsequently 

 discarded both the shears and the endless web, substituting McCor- 

 mick's knife for the shears." 



These Englishmen, disinterested, as between McCormick and Hus- 

 sey, were good critics of these two types of cutting apparatus. Their 

 unanimous opinion was that Hussey's cutting apparatus was not a suc- 

 cess until it was changed so that the knife was beveled only on the 

 upper edge, made to fit closely to the guard, and shortened so as to 

 increase the angle. These changes were copied by the makers of 

 Hussey's machines from McCormick, who from the first had a knife 

 that was sharp only on one edge ; that had serrations and was so posi- 

 tioned that the angle between the knife and the guard was much great- 

 er than in Hussey's, thus giving a " draw cut" instead of a chopping 

 cut. 



But Hussey himself did not make these necessary changes. His 

 idea of a chopping cut, with a knife beveled on both edges, was adhered 

 to by him in his own manufactures until the last, and that it is a failure 

 was told by the fact that in 1858 his manufacturing establishment made 

 but ten machines. Gideon A. Allen, one of the firm of Minturn & 

 Allen, of Urbana, O., testified in the Hussey extension case on the $th 

 of February, 1861, as follows: 



" Q. What kind of harvesting machines do you make? 



" A. Hussey machines. 



" Q. Please say what style of knives you used; did you make any 

 changes; if so, what, and why did you make them? 



" A. The first years we made the knife like M 2 (a long blade, sim- 

 ilar to Fig. 6). After that we commenced cutting them shorter and 

 making them wider; the third year pretty much like M 3 as to size and 

 shape, probably ground a very little way from the point on the under 

 side; after that we kept making them a little shorter and a little wider 

 and quit grinding on the under side, leaving the under side flush all 

 the way. The reason why we ground them only on top was that by 

 leaving the blade lay flat on the guards it would prevent the grass 

 working underneath the blades, which we found it did do in a great 

 measure. There was another advantage, it brought the cutting edge 

 nearer to the guards, and was less liable to leave the grass uncut." 



Minturn, his partner, testified to practically the same effect. The 

 changes made by these men on the Hussey cutting apparatus were 

 directly in line with the principles of cutting which McCormick had 

 used for more than ten years and shown to be a success. 



