TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. REMONSTRANCE OF THE CITIZENS OF NEW YORK, AGAINST THE RENEWAL OF LETTERS PATENT GRANTED TO CYRUS H. MCCORMICK, JUNE 21, 1834, FOR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE REAPING MACHINE

[New York?]: n.p., circa [1852].. [1852].. Very good. - Octavo, softcover. Printed self-wraps sewn with white cord. 20 pages. Illustrated in black & white with 4 engravings of reaping machines & with diagrams. There are 3 light horizontal creases to the pages where the pamphlet has been folded. The page corners are bumped. Very good. <p>A note is penciled along the top of the first page: "Not for presentation to Congress but please read!"<p>The four engravings of reapers are signed "Miller-Mix", that is John Miller and Lucius C. Mix.<p>A group of New York citizens protests to Congress against the renewal of Cyrus McCormick's patent for improvements to his reaping machine. The citizens claim that improvements to the machine for which McCormick claims credit were the work of others, in particular of Obed Hussey whose reaping machine was agreed to perform much better than McCormick's. "Mr. Hussey is a modest man, as well as a man of genius, and consequently the public ear has not been deafened with bombastic accounts of his success. Probably very few persons in this country have ever heard of this final trial between his machine and that of McCormick."<p>Behind this conclusion to the Remonstrance lies the sad story of Obed Hussey [1790-1860], born in Maine to Quaker parents, who was the inventor of a reaping machine. Hussey tested and patented his reaper in 1833, which placed him in competition with the formidable Cyrus H. McCormick of Chicago, Illinois. Both men made several patented improvements to the reaper, until Hussey was finally driven out of business. He sold the rights in his reaper to McCormick in 1858. Two years later, while attempting to board a train in Exeter, NH, he fell beneath the cars and died.<p>Rare. WorldCat locates three copies.