45 



mick ? s patent would cover his use of a knife reciprocating through 

 fixed fingers driven by a crank. In the spring of 1834 McCormick 

 gave Hussey public notice, by a letter in the Mechanics' Magazine, that 

 his machine had been invented and used in 1831, and that he claimed 

 " the principle of cutting by a toothed instrument receiving motion 

 from a crank in combination with iron fingers." The Examiner's 

 statement that the machines were similar in the cutting apparatus left 

 Hussey no escape unless he could show that " our machines are dif- 

 ferent in principle.^ Hussey's egotism is apparent by his statement 

 that " McCormick's machine fails . . . while mine is taking its 

 place." Nothing short of an hallucination could assume that his ten 

 machines were "taking" the place" of McCormick's 1,500. The ad- 

 mission in the letter that not until 1848 could he " give to the world a 

 good reaping, machine" would excite sympathy did it not tell so con- 

 clusively against the claim of the perfection of his machine before that 

 date. 



From the order of the Extension Board it will be seen that on 

 March 23, 1848, the Board directed Mr. McCormick to furnish " satis- 

 factory testimony," and gave him until Wednesday,, the 2Qth of March, 

 six days, in which to obtain it. His testimony, already filed, was in the 

 form of affidavits, and the order directed " that due notice be given to 

 the said Hussey of the time and place of taking said depositions." Mc- 

 Cormick was thus allowed in the month of March, when the roads 

 were almost impassable, six days in which to go from Washington to 

 Steele's Tavern, Rockbridge County, Va., a journey that took three 

 days even when the roads were good. The going and coming would' 

 have consumed all the time allotted by the Board. McCormick, how- 

 ever, had anticipated this dog-in-the-manger attitude of Hussey, who 

 had just failed to obtain his own extension. Some days before he had 

 notified Hussey to be present at the taking of depositions. These de- 

 positions were taken at Steele's Tavern on the i/th and i8th days of 

 March, 1848, before a Justice of the Peace, by whom they were to be 

 sealed and forwarded to Washington. The Justice, as shown by the 

 postmark of the letters, did not mail them until March 23rd, and they 

 did not reach Washington until the afternoon of March 2Qth too late 

 to be considered by the Board of Commissioners. The evidence which 

 the Board states they did -consider consisted,, therefore, in the affidavits, 



