37 



arose. No one of his three great patents was taken out until long after 

 he had fully and carefully experimented and put the machine, as pat- 

 ented, into public operation and use. 



Fig.8 



In 1842 the cutting apparatus (Fig. 8) shown in the patent of 1845 

 was used. This year seven machines were sold and Wm. N. Peyton, 

 who had one of them, wrote to the Southern Planter in August, 1842, 

 as follows : 



" It has been worked this harvest under every disadvantage 

 . . . in consequence of the unprecedented weather we have had. 

 . . . The reaper has cut all descriptions of wheat green, ripe, 

 rusted as badly as wheat could have it, lying and standing. . . . 

 No weather has prevented the machine from working except when the 

 ground was so soft as to the mire the wheels." 



General Corbin Braxton also furnished to the Farmers' Register 

 an account of the operation of his machine : 



" As soon as the first machine was put together we started it on a 

 wet, damp day, in very heavy wheat not yet ripe . . . two mules 

 were hitched, and to my astonishment it operated without stoppage or 

 difficulty." 



In 1843 Mr. McCormick sold twenty-nine reapers, and he had 

 certificates like the above from twenty-seven of them. In 1844 fifty 

 were sold and gave the best of satisfaction, and from the work of these 

 machines in 1844 Mr. McCormick licensed five builders of his reaper 

 at a license fee of $20 per machine. Brown, in Cincinnati, was to build 

 100, Seymour & Morgan, at Brockport, N. Y., in the eastern territory, 

 and Fitch, Backus & Co., of the same place, for the western territory, 

 were licensed. Five counties were sold in Virginia, and the shops on 

 the home farm were to continue building under license. 



