35 



" an open guard." This reissue practice finally reached such outrage- 

 ous extremes that the United States Supreme Court in 1880 turned 

 down the whole subject of reissue. Such a reissue as Hussey's attor- 

 neys obtained in 1857 would to-day be absolutely void. 



McCormick' s Cutting Apparatus. I quote from the description 

 of McCormick's first reaper, found in the second volume of the Me- 

 chanics' Magazine of 1833, as follows: 



" There is a wheel . . . turning a small crank, and from this 

 crank the knife receives a vibratory motion. It is about 4^ feet long 

 with an edge somewhat like that of a sickle (having teeth), straight and 

 projecting into the grain at right angles to the horse. . . . The 

 grain is prevented from slipping with the edge of the knife by pieces 

 of wire projecting before it, within two or three inches of each other/' 



I know of no patent, machine, experiment, newspaper report, or 

 tradition of a reciprocating knife driven by a crank with fixed fingers 

 to prevent the grain from slipping with the knife, before that of Mc- 

 Cormick, in 1831. 



In the McCormick patent of June I, 1834, two ways of making the 

 knife are described. The one used was: 



"A vibrating blade operated by a crank, having the edge either 

 smooth or with teeth, either with stationary wires or pieces above and 

 below, and projecting before it, for the purpose of steadying and sup- 

 porting the grain while cutting; or using a double crank and another 

 blade or vibrating bar." 



The alternative plan of two vibrating blades was never used. 



From the testimony, under oath, of Wm. S. and Leander J. Mc- 

 Cormick, taken fifty years ago, it appears that the fingers or guards 

 did project over the knife, and were bent back beneath its cutting edge. 

 Wm. S. McCormick, describing these fingers, stated that " the back 

 end of the iron fingers was made in the shape of a fork and that fork 

 extending back to the platform was riveted to a wooden pin, while the 

 front end projected forward over and back under the edge of the 

 reciprocating knife-" The drawing herewith (Fig. 7) shows the cutting 

 apparatus that was used in the machine down to 1839. It should be 

 borne in mind that McCormick, after using his reaper in the harvest 

 of 1832 to harvest fifty acres of grain, and in the harvests of 1833-34-35 

 to harvest considerable crops of grain, went into the business of smelt- 

 ing iron in 1835, which then promised large profits. The panic of 



