ii6 



OFFICIAL RETROSPECTIVE EXHIBITION 



No. 95. 



HUSSEY'S CUrilXC. APPARATUS. 



On August 17, 1847, a United States patent was granted to Obed 

 Hussey for his improved cutting apparatus for grain-harvesting machines. 

 This invention was merely an improvement of the cutting apparatus used 

 by him from the beginning of his efforts. The improvement consisted 

 in cutting away the rearmost portion of the upper part of the guard 

 fingers, to permit the shreds of grass to escape, and also in slightly 

 beveling the cutting sections beneath, to prevent them from shearing 

 into the lower portion of the guards. 



Both of these improvements are in constant use, the former on all 

 machines, and the hitter on reaping machines where the edges of the 

 cutting blades are serrated. This patent was an improvement so valu- 

 able that he sold his patent when it had only two years yet to run for 

 $200,000. The apparatus has never, since he left it, been materially 

 improved. 



As far as known, Mr. Hussey was the first to ever apply a raker's 

 stand to a reaper. Gladstone, Salmon, Ogle, and Bell had pr(^i)osed auto- 

 matic delivery. Mr. Hussey seemed to foresee that the time was not 

 ripe for a machine so complicated as one adapted to work automatically, 

 and was satisfied with doing a large part of the work in an effectual man- 

 ner, rather than attempt to accomplish too much at first. He paved the 

 way for self-raking reapers, for hand-raking machines having become 

 successful, inventors turned their attention to applying automatic raking 

 devices to them, which came into use twenty years later. 



The importance of the Hussey cutting apparatus made itself felt at 

 once, and only a few machines having different cutting devices have 

 been put upon the market since he made his inventions. The shears of 

 the Bell machine soon fell by the wayside. C. H. McCormick was the 

 last manufacturer, probably, to adopt the Hussey cutting apparatus, 

 which he did in time to embody it in his machine preparatory to exhibit- 

 ing it at the great exhibition in London in 1851. Nearly all manufac- 

 turers recognized the value of the Hussey invention and the validity of 

 his patent. Mr. McCormick fought it in the courts, but without success. 



The importance of Mr. Hussey's invention was given prominence in 

 England at the trial of reaping machines at the London Exhibition of 



