53 



" In agriculture, it (McCormick's reaper) is, in my view, as im- 

 portant a labor-saving device as the spinning jenny and power-loom 

 in manufacture- It is one of those great and valuable inventions 

 which commence a new era in the progress of improvement, and whose 

 beneficial influence is felt in all coming time." (From the report of 

 Edmund Burke, Commissioner of Patents, 1848.) 



" The McCormick reaper is the most valuable article contributed 

 to this exhibition, and for its originality and value and its perfect work 

 in the field, it is awarded the Council Medal." (Extract from the re- 

 port of the Council of Juries, First World's Fair, London, 1851.) 



" The McCormick reaper is the type after which all others are 

 made, and it is, as well, the one which worked the best in all the trials. 

 On the McCormick invention all other grain cutting machines are 

 based, and not one of the imitations equals the original.'' (Report of 

 the Juries of the Paris International Exposition, 1855, awarding to the 

 McCormick reaper the Grand Gold Medal.) 



In 1863 a great International Exposition was held at Hamburg. 

 The McCormick reaper obtained the Grand Prize, and the jury stated 

 that " McCormick was the inventor of the features that gave value to 

 the reaping machine." On his way home he stopped in England, and 

 the editor of the North British Agriculturist attacked the position of 

 the Hamburg jury, urging that Bell was the inventor of the reaper. 

 Mr. McCormick answered him in several communications, through his 

 own columns, and the following quotation from the Mark Lane Ex- 

 press, the leading agricultural paper of England, under date of Octo- 

 ber 26, 1863, will show the outcome of this controversy: 



" While the editor of the North British Agriculturist shows much 

 zeal for his countryman's (Rev. Patrick Bell) machine, we must say we 

 think the facts and arguments of Mr. McCormick are presented with 

 a clearness and force w r hich seem unanswerable in establishing that he 

 was the first to invent the leading features of the successful reaping 

 machine of the present day; that he continued regularly the improve- 

 ment and prosecution of the same to the perfection of the machine, 

 and that this, in the slightly varied language of the different scientific 

 juries of the various great international expositions of the world, con- 

 stitutes the invention of the reaping machine." 



As an expert opinion, the following is of great value: 



" While there have been many valuable improvements in detail, 

 it may be truthfully said, that to dispense with Cyrus H. McCormick's 

 invention would be to wipe every reaper out of existence." 



" The original machine of Mr- McCormick embraces the follow- 

 ing features: The serrated, reciprocating blade, operating in fingers 

 or supports to the grain being cut. The platform for receiving the cut 



