Obed Hussey, Who, of All Inventors, Made Bread Cheap
History
Obed Hussey, Who, of All Inventors, Made Bread Cheap
Harvesting machinery; Hussey, Obed, 1792-1860
"Having been informed that the bureau of engraving and printing was
preparing new $10 silver certificates to be ornamented by the busts of
Whitney, the inventor of the cotton gin, and C. H. McCormick, 'inventor
of the reaper,' I write you to say that it would manifestly be unjust to
credit the invention of the reaper to any one man. Mr. McCormick does
deserve great credit for his _enterprise_ and _business skill_
in the many years he was engaged in manufacturing harvesting machinery
and we are pleased to honor his memory; yet so much has been done in
bringing the reaper to its present state of perfection by the many
thousands of inventors that our government would make a mistake in
singling out Mr. McCormick from the many _meritorious_ ones who
have contributed so much to the reaper of the past and of the present
day. We well understand that no effort has been spared for many years
past in keeping C. H. McCormick before the American people as the
inventor of the reaper by his immediate relatives and friends, and we
have no right to find fault with such a course upon their part; but when
the great government of the United States of America proposes to certify
by the above mentioned course to the correctness of the claims made for
C. H. McCormick as the inventor of the reaper, to the disparagement of
so many other _worthy_ inventors and co-workers upon the reaper,
then those who know better should raise their voices against such an
attempted recognition for any one man, of whom the best that can be said
is that he was only one of the many.
[Sidenote: The Reaper Itself Mr. Hussey's Contribution]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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