43 



reaper two years before Hussey, McCormick proceeded to obtain ex 

 parte affidavits setting forth the invention and successful operation of 

 his reaper in 1831. Hussey, however, wrote the following letter on 

 February 21, 1848, to the Board of Extension: 



" I wish hereby to interpose my objections to the extension of 

 Cyrus H- McCormick's patent for his reaping machine by your honor- 

 able Board. 



" My objections are these: 



" (i) The machine has not proved a useful invention to the public. 



" (2) Mr. McCormick has been rewarded by sales of patent rights 

 and by the extensive sales of his machine, before the real merits of the 

 machine were fully known. 



" (3) It will be an injury to myself.'' 



He then produced several letters in relation to the work of cer- 

 tain of the hundreds of reapers that McCormick's licensees had sold, 

 and finally got back to the 1843 trial that was ne ^ between his and 

 McCormick's machine in Virginia, in which he was defeated, as shown 

 by the unanimous report of the judges. He says: 



" Our machines came before the public simultaneously and got 

 credit in widely different locations. They were first operated together 

 in Richmond, Ya,, in 1843. ^ n unfair trial was brought about in the 

 same field, where a preference was given to McCormick's machine, 

 which was accidental and should not have been given.'' 



It will be remembered, from the quotations already given, that 

 Hussey had challenged McCormick for this trial several months beiore 

 the harvest of 1843. The letter further says: 



" By the false position in which Mr. McCormick's machine was 

 then placed he made extensive sales of his patent rights, which filled 

 the country with machines which are now going out of use. I need 

 not say that this state of things has had a disastrous effect on my in- 

 terests, as well as on the interests of the farmers of the country, which 

 has been fully developed since that time, and it is believed that a fur- 

 ther extension of McCormick's patent will serve to perpetuate in some 

 degree the evil effects on farmers, while it may operate to retard the 

 just reward which the subscriber claims for having produced the best 

 reaping machine which was ever offered to the world, which reward 

 he feels himself kept out of, in a great measure, by the false position 

 his machine was placed in by the award of the public committee, which 

 has since been fully acknowledged to be wrong. 



" (Signed) OBED HUSSEY." 



What a mixture of inconsistency and selfishness this letter shows T 

 McCormick had " filled the countrv with machines." How shallow, 



