Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Who Invented the Reaper?: An Answer to the Protest Statement Said to Have Been Filed at the Treasury Department
This Protest was recently published anonymously. It undertakes to prove that Hussey invented the reaper, and therefore the picture of Cyrus H. McCormick should not be put on a new banknote. The Protest, as published, was prefaced by the statement that it was prepared by the representatives of the manufacturers of harvesting machines, and that "The opportunity will at last be presented to settle the question forever." Let any who are interested in this subject read the facts herewith given and judge for themselves as to the merits of the case.
The question is not. Who first had an idea that it would be desirable to reap by machinery? but Who made the first machine that worked successfully? A flying machine that could carry passengers to New York in five hours would be a great invention. Many have planned and built and patented flying machines, yet no one has produced a successful one, and the man who will combine the devices that will make a practical flying machine is truly the inventor, even though he make use of levers, springs, frames and devices that others have tried and with which they have failed.
Before the year 1831 there are accounts of attempts to make a reaper, and some of the machines, it is said, did a few hours work when all conditions were favorable. One or two of the earlier machines had devices that, since being combined in a practical way with other devices, have found a place in the successful reaping machine.
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