PREPARED BY THE DEERING HARVESTER COMPANY. 27 



as will be seen, was of the Bell type, which embodied principles that, to 

 many inventors, seemed particularly promising. 



In 1843 some of these or similar machines were manufactured in 

 Kane County, State of Illinois, U. S. A. The difficulty found in keep- 

 ing the shears in perfect order and keeping them free from shreds of 

 grass-blades was such that the machine could be operated only by one 

 unusually expert in the use of machinery. 



A farmer, Marcus Steward, and J. F. Hollister, a skilled mechanic, 

 of Kendall County, Illinois, U. S. A., acquired one of these machines 

 in trade, and rebuilt it, improving it in conformity with what they 

 believed to be required. 



The model, of which the above is a photograph, represents the 

 machine as so rebuilt. It cut a swath of ten feet in width, was operated 

 by two men and three horses, and each day it laid from twenty to thirty 

 acres in gavel form. Later they built another machine of the kind. 



George Rugg, a distant neighbor of Steward and Hollister, of whom 

 we shall soon speak, improved Hussey's cutting apparatus by serrating 

 the edges of the cutting blades; and the rebuilt machine, just mentioned, 

 was provided with a Hussey cutting apparatus thus improved. This 

 machine cut about thirty harvests, of several hundred acres each, before 

 it was laid aside to make a place for others still more in keeping with new 

 requirements. 



The Woodward machine, in its improved form, came into promi- 

 nence in 1845. 



In this neighborhood Hussey's reapers had long been known, and 

 McCormick machines were being introduced. Many manufacturers, 

 and others interested in harvesting machinery, called to see the machine 

 that was successfully doing sixty per cent more work than any other yet 

 made. Mr. C. H. McCormick, then a small manufacturer, called at the 

 farm, witnessed its operation, and threatened suit under his own patents; 

 but the farmer was not timid, and continued to use the machine for more 

 than a quarter of a century. 



The rebuilding of this Woodward machine by the farmer and 

 machinist above mentioned are particularly dwelt upon because of the 

 fact that on the same farm, by the encouragement given by one and the 

 skill of the other, one of the greatest revolutions in harvesting machin- 

 ery was given its first impetus. (See Marsh harvester.) 



No. 9. 



MACHINE A MOISSONNER WOODWARD. 



Quelque temps apres 1840 une machine a moissonner fut con- 

 struite par P. Woodward, de Freehold, N. J., et plus tard brevetee 

 par lui, sous la date du 30 Septembre 1845. Les machines furent 

 considerablement construites dans differentes parties des Ktats-Unis. 

 Comme indique dans le brevet, la machine etait munie d'un rabatteur 

 semblable a celui employe par Bell. Le rabatteur etait supporte sur 

 des bras s'etendant vers I'avant. Une plateforme en forme de boite 

 est adaptee pour recevoir le grain, et devant elle etait rang-ee une 

 serie de ciseaux semblables a ceux employes par Bell. Comme celle 

 de Bell, la machine etait adaptee a etre poussee par un attelage de 

 chevaux, un cheval de chaque cote du timon se prolongeant vers 



