THE “FULTON” OF AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY
Of the two rivals, McCormick showed the better business ability in perfecting his invention and promoting it so that he eventually became to be considered the “Fulton” of agricultural machinery and the public forgot the pioneer work of Hussey. As a matter of fact, McCormick built his first successful reaper three years before he obtained his patent. Four horses were hitched to the machine and he went out into a neighboring field of oats to demonstrate it. In less than half a day he had reaped six acres, which was a remarkable performance when we consider that a single acre was considered a day’s work for one man. McCormick’s machine had a reel above the cutter to hold the grain against the knife and as the grain was cut it dropped upon a platform. A man walked alongside the machine and removed the grain with a rake. And so the reaper with two men to operate it did the work that had formerly required twelve men with the cradle.
The next important improvement was to provide a seat at one side of the reaper so that the man with the rake could ride. While this reduced the labor of the man it did not materially increase the efficiency of the machine. The next step, however, was of material importance. In place of raking off the hay by hand an automatic rake was furnished and the services of the extra man were dispensed with. One man could then do the work of twelve. McCormick had had difficulty in introducing his machine into public use, but now its superiority over hand labor was so marked that reapers came to be extensively employed on American farms. The reaper had reached this stage of its development when the World’s Fair of 1851 was held in London and McCormick’s machine was sent across the Atlantic to be displayed at the exhibition. At the same time Hussey sent over one of his machines which had reached the same stage of development. There was a British machine also on exhibition based on the invention of Rev. Patrick Bell of Scotland in 1826, but in a competition with the American machines it could not begin to compare in efficiency. The work of the American machines was a revelation to the British farmers. The prize was carried off by McCormick’s machine, which was declared by the judges to be worth the whole cost of the exposition. Unfortunately Hussey was not on hand to direct the operation of his machine, which may have had something to do with its failure, for in another test the Hussey reaper was found superior to the McCormick.
The excellence of American reapers was now well established and their fame spread throughout Europe. In a competitive test held near Paris in 1855, America won the highest honors by cutting an acre of oats in twenty-two minutes as against sixty-six minutes for a British machine and seventy-two for an Algerian machine. In 1878 McCormick was made a member of the French Academy of Sciences in honor of his achievements.