This letter is the most perfect and complete estopper to priority of invention--not only for 1831, but to 1841 inclusive, if not to 1845, that could be _penned_. His _pen_ cuts a "cleaner swath," as we farmers say, than ever did his Reaper; and this letter at least is certainly C. H. McCormick's own "invention," which no one else can lay any claim to. Yet, strange as it may appear, he contended before the Board of Extensions in order to invalidate Hussey's Patent, that he invented a Reaping Machine nine years before! So has perpetual motion been invented a hundred times--in the estimation of the projectors; and by his own showing, and on oath, he sold but two machines up to 1842--one of them conditionally sold--being _eleven_ years after the alleged invention, and even they had to be re-invented to make them work, or use the previous inventions of others. In this letter to Philip Pusey, Esq., M. P., C. H. McCormick admits that the Reel "had been used before," yet he includes it in his patent of 1834.--Both the specifications and drawings in the Patent Office conclusively establish the fact that James Ten Eyck _patented_ the reel or "revolving rack," or "revolving frame" in 1825, used not only to _gather_ the grain as all such devices are used, but by the knives attached to it, also intended to _cut it off_. [Sidenote: Priority of the Reel] Could it be contended that because _rockers_ are attached to a chair it is no longer a chair, or useful as a seat? Even "Mary McCormick, the mother of Cyrus," and "Eliza H. Steele, of Steele's Tavern, Virginia"--nay every woman and child in the country would tell you that it was then a _rocking_ chair--just as much a seat as ever--and Ten Eyck's was a Reel to all intents and purposes, but also a _cutting_ reel. It does not require the mechanical tact and skill of Professor Page to discover that "the revolving rack presents novelty chiefly in form, as its operation is similar to the revolving frame of James Ten Eyck, patented November 2d, 1825." It is certain the reel was no "novelty," either in 1831 or 1834, when patented by C. H. McCormick; _he_ tells us so himself; and it is most likely the father of C. H. McCormick also used a reel for his "cylinders standing perpendicularly, in 1816," and also for his other plan in 1831, and "which satisfied my father to abandon it." And it is equally probable that most of the "fathers" and the sons, who invented Reapers for a hundred years preceding the date of Hussey's patent, used reels;--indeed the reel seemed to be considered a _Sine qua non_ by many; most of the inventors we have any clear account of, resorted to the reel. Hussey also used the reel in 1833--of course the reel and seat in combination--but only for a short period, as it was found quite unnecessary--an actual incumbrance with _his_ cutting apparatus, and soon laid it aside.