[Sidenote: Mr. Hussey Not a Business Man]

No one will claim that Mr. Hussey was what may be termed a good business
man; like most inventors, his mind was on what he sought to accomplish
rather than on the hoarding of wealth. I have already quoted from
correspondence that passed between him and his friends, when attempting
to get his 1833 patent extended.

An early manufacturer, well known to Mr. Hussey and who paid royalties
under Mr. Hussey's patents, writes:

"Mr. Hussey's early machines were made by Jarvis Reynolds of Cincinnati,
Ohio," we are informed by Mr. William N. Whitely, who early became
familiar with many of the facts, he having opposed Hussey's extension
application, "in a shop on the river front, beginning in 1831 or '32.
After making that operated in 1833 he built several others during two or
three years or more. Some of the early ones were taken to Glendale,
Ohio, to the farm of Algernon Foster."

"The first machine taken there had a reel on it, but after using it a
short time the reel was laid aside. On the same machine was an extra
platform, attached to the rear, so that the raker could deliver the
grain to one side. The machines were intended for both reaping and
mowing." Mr. Whitely states that he saw two of the machines still on Mr.
Foster's farm in 1860, that had been there since, probably, 1835.

"The machines were at first bought by farmers who did cutting for the
neighbors and under the circumstances were anxious to prostrate as many
acres of grain per day as possible; in order to accomplish this, they
applied four horses and moved on a 'jog trot.' So moving the reel was
found of little service because the rapidly moving machine caused the
severed straws to fall backward on the platform so that the raker had
little to do but to remove it, except where it was particularly badly
lodged; in such cases he manipulated his rake as it is now used on all
reelless reaping machines."

After building the machines for Algernon Foster, Mr. Hussey undertook
the manufacture of two or more machines for the harvest of 1835. From a
letter received from John Lane, we quote:

[Sidenote: A Contract]

"'Old Judge Foster' was a well known jurist and judge of court in
Hamilton County, Ohio, having his country home (a farm) 3-1/2 miles near
due east from my father's place of business, and it was he who
introduced Obed Hussey to John Lane as being a mechanic who could and
would make for him the reaper he was at