INVENTION OF REAPING MACHINES. 



constructed, as to be clr;i\\ ii l)y an iron bar so shaped, appended and 

 supported on the underneath part of the carriage, as to achnit of the 

 machine turning in any direction, and the carriage would follow just 

 as the two hind wheels of a wagon do; the carriage had a seat behind, 

 and a thick deep cushion in front, for the raker to press his knees 

 against while removing the grain from the platform to his right hand, 

 which he was enabled to do with apparent ease with a rake of pccidiar 

 stiapc ; — ( it cannot be done with a rake of ordinary shape.) 



The working of the first carriage was witnessed by many gentle- 

 men who approved of it; and the combination of the secontl carriage 

 I applied for a patent for. The model carriage can now be seen in 

 the room of the Patent Office, containing models of all rejected 

 patents. After this, I heard of McCormick making experiments at 

 one of his Western factories — I think it was at Chicago; and finally 

 he addressed me a letter, stating lie held changed the construction of his 

 machine, and had it so constructed that the raker could ride on the machine 

 and ronove the grain!' 



We thinktheforegoinglctter — for it carries truth on its face — clearly 

 shows that the idea of " changing the construction of the machine," 

 and permit the raker to ride, did not originate with the McCormick's, 

 father or son; for "they had tried every imaginable plan or way before 

 placing the machine before the public, and that they regarded it as an 

 impossibility for the wheat to be so removed regularly, successfully 

 and properly, in any other way except on foot." 



At the trial referred to at Hutchinson's, and the late Senator 

 Roane's in 1843, it was demonstrated that a raker could ride and rake, 

 and as was also done by Hussey many years before, at various places, 

 and delivering the grain at back or side. But we have still better evi- 

 dence than the above — C. H. McCormick himself. 



His Patent of 1847, covering some four or five folio pages, is alto- 

 gether to change "the construction of the machine," to admit of, and 

 to patent the raker's seat; the substance of the whole is comprised 

 within the following brief extract from the patent of 1847: 



"And the gearinsT which communicates motion to the crank is placed back of 

 the driving wheel, which is therefore subject to be clogged by sand, dirt, straw, iS:c. 

 — and 1)1 const i/uciicc of (lie relative position of the various parts, the attciutant is 

 obliged to lealk on the groiittd by the side of tJie machine, to rake the cut grain from 

 the platform as it is deli7'eredaud laid there by the reel. These defects which have 

 so much retarded the introduction into practical and general use of Reaping Ma- 

 chines, I have remedied by my improvements, the nature of which consists in plac- 

 ing the driving wheels further back than heretofore, and back of the gearing which 

 communicates motion to the sickle, which is placed in a line back of the axis of the 

 driving wheel, the connexion being formed, &c. and also bringing the driving wheel 

 sufficiently far back to balance (he frame of (he machine tuith (he raker on i(, to make 

 room for him to sit or stand on the frame," &c. &c. — "zu/iich cannot be done, if the 

 raker icalks by (he side of (he machine, as heretofore." 



Now if C. H. McCormick's testimony in his own favor, can be con- 

 sidered reliable, he certainly had not ///rvv^Av/ a seat for his raker as 

 late as 1845 — and not long prior to 1847, ^vhen he patented it; and 

 ]\\si fourteen years after Hussey had used it e-cery year, successively. 

 The raker's seat therefore was just as original an invention as the reel. 



