151. McCormick’s last named patent also covered the arrangement of the

gearing and crank in front of the drive wheel, so as to balance the weight of the raker. In the same year Hussey took out his patent of August 7, 1847, No. 5,227, for the open top and slotted finger guard, which is an important part of all successful cutter bars. [Illustration: FIG. 152.--THE MANN HARVESTER OF 1849.] The rivalry between the McCormick and Hussey machines continued for many years, and they were frequently in competition both in America and England. The stimulus of this rivalry doubtless had much to do with the development and success of the reaper. Both Hussey and McCormick asked for extensions of their patents, but they failed to get them. In 1848, pending McCormick’s extension proceedings, facts were introduced by him to show that his invention of the reaper antedated Hussey’s, and that he had made his machine as early as 1831, and had used it then on the farm of Mr. John Steele, in Virginia. This claim to priority was supported by the publication of a description of the machine, and certificate of its use, in the _Union_, a newspaper published at Lexington, Va., September 28, 1833, and although no adjudication was ever made on this issue, this fact, together with Mr. McCormick’s success in the contest in England in 1851, and his subsequent persistence and activity in improving, developing and introducing the reaper, has so distinguished him in this connection, that to-day his name is as commonly associated with the reaper as is Fulton’s with the steamboat, or that of Morse with the telegraph. To Mr. McCormick more than to anybody else the perfection of the reaper is due. In the spring of 1851 McCormick placed his reaper on exhibition at the World’s Fair in London. Hussey also had his machine there, and they were the only ones represented. The machines were tested in the field, and astonished all who saw them operate. The Grand Council medal, which was one of four special medals awarded for marked epochs in progress, was given to McCormick, and the judges referred to the McCormick machine as being worth to the people of England “the whole cost of the exposition.” It is only fair to state that Hussey was not present to direct the trial of his machine, and that in a subsequent trial another jury decided in his favor, and His Royal Highness, Prince Albert, ordered two of Hussey’s machines in 1851--one for Windsor and the other for the Isle of Wight. The Duke of Marlborough also gave his personal testimonial to Mr. Hussey as to the excellence of his machine. In 1855, at a competitive trial of reapers near Paris, three machines were entered. The American machine cut an acre of oats in twenty-two minutes, the English machine in sixty-six minutes, and the Algerian in seventy-two. In 1863, at the great International Exposition at Hamburg, the McCormick reaper again took the grand prize. While in Paris in 1878 Mr. McCormick was elected a member of the French Academy of Sciences as “having done more for the cause of agriculture than any living man.” Mr. McCormick continued to the end of his days, in 1884, to devote his entire energies to the development of the reaper, and well deserved the princely fortune that resulted from his indefatigable labors, a good portion of which fortune he spent during his life in the cause of education and acts of philanthropy. The inventory of his estate, filed in the Probate Court of Cook County, Ill., showed $10,000,000 as the reward of his genius and industry, and is an object lesson of the reward of merit for the ambitious youth of the Twentieth Century. [Illustration: FIG. 153.--THE MARSH HARVESTER OF 1858.] [Illustration: FIG. 154.--THE CHAMPION REAPER.] In the development of the reaper one of the first deficiencies to be supplied was automatic mechanism for taking the grain from the platform. In November, 1848, F. S. Pease took out patent No. 5,925 for a rake whose teeth projected up through slots in the platform, and moved back and forth to deposit the grain upon the ground. On June 19, 1849, J. J. & H. F. Mann took out patent No. 6,540 on a machine employing the principle of an endless band for carrying the cut grain to the side of the machine, where it passed up an inclined plane and accumulated in a receptacle to form a gavel, which was clumped upon the ground. This machine is shown in Fig. 152. On July 8, 1851, W. H. Seymour took out patent No. 8,212 for a self-raker, and this machine marks the beginning of the era of self-raking reapers, which for a quarter of a century in various modifications continued to be used, until displaced by subsequent improvements in binding devices. In 1853 the Sylla and Adams machine was brought out, the patents for which were bought by the Aultmans, and the Aultman and Miller, or “Buckeye” harvester, was manufactured thereunder. The general form of the modern harvester has followed along the lines of the Mann machine of 1849. The development began by replacing the gavel receptacle on the right of that machine (Fig. 152) with a platform on which stood men who rode on the machine as they bound the grain. An early and important example of a harvester of this class is given in the Marsh machine, patented August 15, 1858, No. 21,207, and shown in Fig. 153. To this type of machine the self-binding devices were subsequently applied, but before they materialized many other improvements in self-rakers were made and applied, among which may be mentioned the combined rake and reel of Owen Dorsey, of Maryland (1856), sweeping horizontally across the quadrantal platform; the McClintock Young revolving reel, carrying a rake; the Henderson rake (1860) used on the Wood machine; the Seiberling dropper (1861), which consisted of a slotted platform which moved to discharge the gavel; and the various improvements covered by Whiteley’s patents, which were embodied in the Champion reaper, of Springfield, O., and which is shown in Fig. 154. This machine had a combined rake and reel of the Dorsey type, whose arms moved over a circular inclined and stationary cam, and whose rakes had a horizontal sweep over the platform, and a vertical return over the wheels. [Illustration: FIG. 155.--THE LOCKE WIRE BINDER OF 1873.] The next step, and, perhaps the most important one, in the development of the reaper, was in providing automatic devices for binding the gavels of grain into sheaves. John E. Heath, of Ohio, in patent No. 7,520, of July 22, 1850, was the pioneer, and he used cord. Watson, Renwick & Watson, in patent No. 8,083, of May 13, 1851, and C. A. McPhitridge, in patent No. 16,097, of November 18, 1856, quickly followed in the attempt to provide such a device, the former using cord and the latter wire. But the problem was not an easy one to solve. On November 16, 1858, W. Grey took out patent No. 22,074, for starting the binding mechanism by the weight of the bundle. Probably the first to complete a binding attachment that was partly automatic, and to attach it to a reaping machine, were H. M. & W. W. Burson, of Illinois. On June 26, 1860, and October 4, 1864, W. W. Burson patented a cord binder, and in 1863 one thousand machines were built. These machines, however, used wire, and being assisted in their operations by hand labor, were not truly automatic. On February 16, 1864, Jacob Behel, of Illinois, obtained a patent, No. 41,661, for a very important invention in binders. He showed and claimed for the first time the knotting bill, which loops and forms the knot, and the turning cord holder for retaining the end of the cord. On May 31, 1870, George H. Spaulding took out patent No. 103,673 for a binder which automatically regulated the bundles to a uniform size. Sylvanus D. Locke, of Wisconsin, was the next inventor who undertook to solve the problem. He took out patents No. 121,290, November 28, 1871, and No. 149,233, March 31, 1874, and many others. In 1873 he associated himself with Walter A. Wood, and they built and sold probably the first automatic self-binding harvester that was ever put upon the market. The Locke wire binder of 1873 is shown in Fig. 155. The use of wire, however, for binding grain, involved certain objections in that it required a special cutting tool for cutting the sheaves at the thresher, and it was not easy to remove the wire, and parts of it were likely to go through the thresher. Inventors accordingly concentrated their attention on the use of twine or cord. Marquis L. Gorham, of Illinois, built a successful twine binder, and had it at work in the harvest field in 1874. This machine, covered by patent No. 159,506, February 9, 1875, not only bound by cord, but produced bundles of the same size. The grain in this machine is delivered by the elevator of the harvester upon a platform, where it is seized by packers and carried forward into a second chamber, where it is compacted by the packers against a yielding trip, so that when sufficient grain is accumulated, the trip will yield and start the binding mechanism into operation. The ball of cord carried on the machine has one end threaded through the needle and fastened in a holder. The grain is forced against the cord by the packers, and when the binder starts the needle encircles the gavel, carrying the cord to a knotting bill, and the end is again seized by the rotating holder, the loop formed, the ends of the band severed, and the bound bundle is discharged from the machine. A gate, which has in the meantime shut off the flow of grain, is now drawn back, and the operation is repeated. On February 18, 1879, John F. Appleby took out a patent, No. 212,420, for an improvement on the Gorham binder. In Fig. 156 is shown a modern automatic self-binding reaper which embodies the fundamental principles of McCormick and Hussey, the inclined elevator and platform shown by Marsh, and the automatic binding devices of Behel, Gorham and Appleby. [Illustration: FIG. 156.--MODERN AUTOMATIC SELF-BINDING REAPER.] This machine, under favorable conditions, with one driver, cuts twenty acres of wheat in a day, binds it, and carries the bound bundles into windrows, and with one shocker, performs the work of twenty men, and does it better, the saving in the waste of grain over hand labor being sufficient to pay for the twine used in binding. It is said that the self-binding reaper has reduced the cost of harvesting grain to less than half a cent a bushel. It is estimated that more than 180,000 machines of the self-binding type are now produced yearly, the manufacturers in Chicago alone turning out more than three-fourths of this number. It is not possible to do justice to all the worthy workers in this great industry. Nearly 10,000 patents have been granted on reaping and mowing machines, and the conspicuous names of Whiteley, Wood, Atkins, Manny, Yost, and Ketchum, in addition to those already mentioned, are only a small part of the great army of inventors who have contributed to the development and perfection of the reaper. In 1840 it is said there were but three reapers made. To-day the total number of self-binding harvesters, reapers and mowers in use is estimated to be two millions. The growth of this industry in the four earlier decades is as follows (the relatively small increase between 1860 and 1870 being accounted for by the Civil War):