If the foregoing testimony is not conclusive, as regards priority of invention in 1831 against C. H. McCormick, we think the evidence which follows--and which no one will pretend to call in question, or doubt--establishes the fact that the machine of 1831 was good for nothing,--not even _half invented_; and that the machine of 1841 was not much more perfect. On page 231 of the Reports of Juries for the Great London Exhibition, and now in the Library of Congress, we find the following: "It seems right," says Philip Pusey, Esq., M. P., "to put on record Mr. McCormick's own account of his progress, or some extracts at least, from a statement written by him, at my request."--[Pusey.] "My father was a farmer in the county of Rockbridge, State of Virginia, United States. He made an experiment in cutting grain in the year 1816, by a number of cylinders standing perpendicularly. Another experiment of the same kind was made by my father in the harvest of 1831, which satisfied my father to abandon it. Thereupon my attention was directed to the subject, and the same harvest I invented and put in operation in cutting late oats on the farm of John Steele, adjoining my father's, those parts of my present Reaper called the platform, for receiving the corn, a straight blade taking effect on the corn, supported by stationary fingers over the edge, and a reel to gather the corn; which last, however, I found had been used before, though not in the same combination. "Although these parts constituted the foundation of the present machine, I found in practice innumerable difficulties, being limited also to a few weeks each year, during the harvest, for experimenting, so that my first patent for the Reaper was granted in June, 1834. "During this interval, _I was often advised by my father and family to abandon it, and pursue my regular business, as likely to be more profitable, he having given me a farm_. [Italicised by C. H. McC.] "No machines were sold until 1840, and I may say that they were not of much practical value until the improvements of my second patent in 1845. "These improvements consist in reversing the angle of the sickle teeth alternately--the improved form of the fingers to hold up the corn, etc.--an iron case to preserve the sickles from clogging--and a better mode of separating the standing corn to be cut. Up to this period nothing but loss of time and money resulted from my efforts. The sale has since steadily increased, and is now more than a thousand yearly."[2]