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THE

INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS

01-

CAYUGA 'COUNTY, N. Y.

BY

CYRENUS WHEELER, Jr.

WITH A SUPPLEMENT

BY DAVID M. OSBORNE.

Read before the Cayuga County Historical Society, at Auburn, N. V., December 21,
1880. and forming a part of their publications, "' No. 2."

ILLUSTRA TED B Y FRANK R. RA fHBUN

¦ AUBURN, N. Y.
Published by the Author.
1882.

AUTHOR'S EDITION, TWO HUNDRED COPIES.
Number ,

KNAPP & PECK,
Book, Job and Commercial Printers,
Auburn, N. Y.

INDEX TO ILLUSTEATIONS.

Page.
Head-Piece  g
Original Initial  q
Fig. i. Costume of Man, Stone Age  lo
2. Grecian Lady in Dress of Old Style  ii
3. Costume of Rich Bourgeoise, 14TH Century  11
4. Plan of Ancient Work near Auburn  ;  12
5. Arrow Heads  13
6. Spear Heads, etc  14
7. Stone Pestle AND. Hammer Stone  15
8. Canoe  15
9. Log Cabin  16
10. Samp Mortar  17
II. Primitive Corn Mill  17
12. Sugar Camp   18
13. Log Boat  ig
14. Log Sled  19
15. Primitive Spinner  20
16. Egyptian Women using the Distaff  20
•17. Spinning Wheel  21
18. Reel  22
19. Flax Spinning Wheel  22
20. Eastern Mode of Churning  23
21. Dash Churn  23
22. Rotary Churn  .'  24
23. Primitive Hoe  28
24. Primitive Hoe with Bone Blade  28
25. Egyptians Plowing  28
26. Plow of Ancient Greeks  29

INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS.
27. Plow Shod with Metal  ... 29
28. " Bull Plow "  30
29. Jethro Wood Plow  33
30. Portrait of Jethro Wood  37
31. Sickle of Bronze Epoch  47
32. Sickle of Iron Epoch  47
33. Egyptian Harvesting Scene  47
34. Modern Sickle  .'  48
35. Application of the Sickle  48
36. •• Ani ani "  48
37. Application of the " Ani- ani "  49
38. Early Reaping Machine, First Century  49
39. Stripping Teeth of above  50
40. Harvesting Cradle   50
41. Application of Harvesting Cradle  51
42. Scythe of the Iron Epoch  51
43. Scythe of Modern Times  '   -  52
44. Application of the Scythe  52
45. Meares' Machine  53
46. Plan View of Hussey Machine   55
47. Perspective View of Hu.ssey Machine  56
48. Forbush Machine, as a Mower  59
49. Forbush Machine, as a Reaper . . ;  59
50. Ketchum Machine  ;  61
51. Early Kirby Machine  62
52. Later Kirby Machine  62
53. Kirby Machine of 1S82  63
54. Osborne Self-Binding Harvester  65
55. Burdick Reaper  67
56. Osborne Mower No. 7, Burdick Type  6g
57. Wheeler Machine of 1854 5  71
58. Cutting Apparatus op First Wheeler Machine  71
59. Wheeler Machine of 1856  73
60. Wheeler Machine of 1857  75
61. Wheeler Machine of 1858 9  75

INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS. 5
62. Wheeler Machine OP i860 — " Cayuga Chief"  77
63. Wheeler Machine of i860. Folded Cutter Bar  78
64. " Cayuga Chief " of i860, as a Reaper  79
65. " Cayuga Chief " of 1861, with Overhanging Reel  80
66. " (Cayuga Chief No. 2," Hand Raking Reaper, 1862  81
67. " Cayuga Chief, Jr." — Mower of 1861  82
68. " Cayuga Chief, Jr." — on the Road, 1861  83
69 " Cayuga Chief " as a " dropper," 1864  84
70. Wheeler Single Reaper of 1866  85
71. " Cayuga Chief," with Johnston Self-Rake, 1867  86
72. "Cayuga Chief" Self-Raking Reaper No. 2. 1868  87
73. " Cayuga Chief" Self-Raking Harvester OF 1869 .... 88
74. Wheeler Mower No. 6, of 1872  89
75. Wheeler Mower No. 6, Showing Gearing  90
76. Wheeler Co.MBiNED No. 6, 1873  ,  91
77. Wheeler Combined No. 6, Pl.^tform Folded, 1875 ... 92
78. Wheeler Independent Front-Cut Mower of 1881...... 93
Tail-Piece  95
Head-Piece  99
Original Initial  -99
Tail Piece  102

THE INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS
OF CAYUGA COUNTY, N. Y

Read before the Cayuga County Historical Society, at Auburn, N. Y.,
December 21st, x88o.
BY CYRENUS WHEELER, JR.

Egyptian Flax Harvesting Scene.
INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS
OF CAYUGA COUNTY, N. Y.

JIIB subject of our paper
this evening, will bo " The
Inventors and Inventions
l^of Cayuga County."
This County was origi-
' nally included in Albany
County, which was formed
in 1683, and by subse
quent statute was rnade to
comprise evei-ything with
in the Colony of New
York, north and west of
the present limits of that
County, and all of Ver
mont. The County of
Montgomery was formed
from it, March 12, 177'2,
under the name of Tyron, borne by the then Colonial
Governor. Its present name was given it in honor of General
Bichard Montgomery of Revolutionary fame. Herkimer

10

INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS

County, (originally called Ergheimer,) was formed from
Montgomery, February 16, 1791, and Onondaga County
from Herkimer, March 5, 1794. Onondaga County at this
time comprised the whole military tract, and from this was
taken Cayuga County, March 8, 1799, and Seneca County
from Cayuga in 1804, and a partof Tompkins County in
1817, and Cortland County
from Onondaga in 1803.
In treating the sabjcCt,
we must ask the kind in
dulgence of our hearers
whilst brief allusion is
made to some of the earlier
inventions of the country
and the world.
George Farquhar, two
hundred years ago truly
said, "Necessity, is the'
motlier of invention." This
necessity has been ac
knowledged in all times
and in every age, and
among every people has
been acted upon. Inven
tion • antedates the flood,
and was at an early day
Pig. 1.— Costume and Accoutrements of Man in Practiced by OUr llrst par
the Eeindeer Epoch, Stone Age. g^,tg_ After partaking of
the forbidden fruit, they felt the necessity of being clothed;
"And they sewed fig-leaves together, and made for them
selves aprons," and thus became the first -iiweniors, and joint
inventors also, the record of which has been preserved in
Genesis, third chapter and seventh verse. The question of
dress from that day to this has been an important one, and

^ii-:

OF CAYUGA COUNTT, N. Y.

11

especially so in modern times to those fair daughters of Eve,"
who, with extensive wardrobes often,
feel in view of the rapid changes and
wonderful inventions of fashion, that
they "have nothing to wear."
The first necessity was food and
clothing, the next shelter; and it is
recorded in the fourth
chapter and seventeenth
verse of the same book,
that " Enoch builded a
City " ; and in the twen
tieth ¦ verse, that Jabel
J " was the fatiier of such
Fiu. ^.-Grecian Lady in Dress of Old Style, j^g (Jvvell in tcntS ;" in the
twenty-first verse, that his brother
Jubal, " was the father of all
such as handled the harp and
organ ;" and in the twenty -second
verse we learn that Tubal Cain
" was an instructor of every
artificer in brass and iron." In
vention at that early day, appears
to have made rapid progress.
The City built by E noch, was
probably a collection of tents,
and the people mainly led a
pastoral .life, as "Jabel was the
father of such as dwell in tents,
and have much cattle.'' In
Genesis, eleventh chapter, third
verse, we learn that the descend
ants of Noah on the plains of
Shinar, invented brick for build
ing a city, and erecting a tower,
neither of which appear to h.ave

Fig. 3.— Costume of Eich Bourgeoise,
14th Century.

12'

INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS

been completed. Invention had reached a high standard,
¦and the arts and comrnerce flourished in past ages.
In regard to this country, and more especially this County,
and the inventions practiced here at an early day, it is proper
to inquire. This County, before its settlement by the whites,
was the hunting ground of the Cayugas, a tribe of the Six

Fig. 4.— Plan of Ancient Work near Aubnm, N. T. (Fort Hill),— From Ancient
Monuments of the United States. No. l.-By E G Squier
Harpers' Magazine, May, 1880, p. 743. '
Nations. Prior to their occupancy of it, another, and dif
ferent race of people resided here. Agassiz has declared that,
in his opinion, " America, so far as her physical history is
concerned has been falsely denominated the 'New World.'
Hers was the first dry land lifted out of the waters ; hers
the first shore washed by the ocean that enveloped all the
earth beside ; and while Europe was represented only by

OF CAYUGA COUNTY, N. Y.

13

islands, rising here and there above the sea, America stretched
an unbroken line of land, from Nova Scotia to the ' Par
West.'" The charac
teristics of this early
race, can only be judged
of by the vestiges of
their works yet in exis
tence, as found widely
scattered all over the
country. It has been inferred
that this race was an
agricultural people, de
pendent upon the soil
rather than the chase
for support. When, or
how they disappeared,
is veiled in uncertainty.
It is, liowever, clear that
many centuries must
have elapsed since they
occupied the country.
The aborigines of the
country possessed in a
moderate degree, in
ventive talent which
was born of their first
great necessities — food
and clothing ; secondly
of the means for offence
and defense ; thirdly,
transportation ; and f<nirthly, of a desire for ornamentation.
Its manifestation is shown in their imjjlements of the chase and
warfare, the bow and arrows and spear,'!, the flint heads of

Fig, 5.— Six Arrow Heads of Flint— CayugK Tribe—
From Ancient Town on "Cutting Place,"
N. E. comer of City of Aubui-n, N. Y.

14

Fig 6.— a, ft, Flint Spear Heads ; c. Knife ; d, un
kuown ; e,f, Celts or Scrapiirs. From farm
of Ulysses Wright, Bsc[., on Franklin
Street, Auburn, N. Y,

INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS which, found in different
localities, by their differ
ence in form and finish,
indicating difference of
degree in the skill and
inventive talent of the
makers. Their wigwams, their
dress including their leg
gings and moccasins, at
test their inventive talent
and raechanical skill ;
and the light bark canoe,
(Fig. 8.) as a means of
transpoitation, not only
evinces skill, but an
adaptation of means to
ends in harmony with
their surroundings.
Rude pottery, as well
as beads are found and
attest the same faculty.
When, or by whom these
rude arts were first prac
ticed, is uncertain ; how
long they had been prac
ticed will remain forever
unknown. They were,
however, so practiced
at the earliest date of
which we have any au
thentic record of this
country, which goes back
to the early part of the
seventeenth centurv.

OF CAYUGA COUNT y, N. Y.

15

The permanent settlement of this County by Europeans
scarcely reaches back a century. The early
pionciers, here found a nearly unbroken
wilderness and with rare exceptions a heavy
growth of timber, the product of a long un
disturbed and- prolific soil. To the reraoval
ofthe forest they bent their energies, First
in the order of their necessities, shelter was
required. The straight
bodies of the forest trees
served the purpose, and the
woodman's axe shaped them
and from them the house
was erected. Barks served
as a covering ; an open fire
place of stone, and a chim
ney laid up with sticks and
Fig. 7.— a. stone Pestle from Cato, ft. Hammer ., ,. inn
Stone from "Steel Place," Auburn, N.Y. mud ; a SpllUt pianlc fiOOr,

Fig. 8.

a door on wooden hinges and a " latch-string always out,'
completed the early home of the pioneer.

16

INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS

The furniture was scant and of the simplest kind. ' This
home, however rude, was the centre of as rauch real hap
piness as more pretentious mansions often afford. As fast

o

as the forest disappeared, the cultivation of the soil pro
gressed. The implements in use were adapted to their
necessities. The axe that cleft the timber, opened the
ground for the reception of seed when thickly spread roots
forbade the use of the hoe.

OF CAYUGA COUXTY, N. Y.

17

q o

ss

¦5 ¦3
p. a.
S

a

The crop of corn, when raised, was converted into samp
and coarse meal by hand, aided by the stump of a tree

Fig. 11.— Primitive Corn Mill, Stone Age. (Figuier.)

18

INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS

hollowed out by the axe and fire to form a mortar, and a
large wooden pestle suspended above it from a spring-pole.
The forest, also yielded sweetness. The su^-ar maple,
abundant in this County in those days yielded, in early

spring, an abundant harvest of sap, which was caught in
troughs shaped by the axe, and boiled down to a delicious
syrup raaking more palatable the corn meal cake, and the
boiled samp.

OF CAYUGA COUNTV, N. Y.

19

With the advance of improveraents, animals were intro
duced, and oxen became iraportant aids in subduing the

Fig. 13.— "Log-boat," of Early Settlers.
wilderness and cultivating the .soil. The implements and
machinery in use were of the simplest kind ; but of the
kind best adapted to the necessities of the
time. The first vehicles in use, were the
¦• log- boat," and the " log-sled." The first
was formed of the crotch of a tree shaped
by the axe, to slidp over the ground. To
this, the oxen, were attached by a chain,
and it served much the same purpose as
the stone-boat of the present day.
I The log-sled was an improvement upon
I the log-boat, and served its special pur-
P poses. It was constructed in much the
^ sam.e form as the log boat, the forks of
the triangle being left longer, and selected
P with a view to securing a long curved
5 runner; and the raain stem was hewn
I down, and left long enough to forra a
' tongue, to which the oxen were attached.
q On top of the forked or runner part, was
fastened a rough floor, and a raised bench
for a seat.
This was the conveyance for long dis
tances; it served to take the "grist to
mill " (one of which, and we believe the
first, was erected in what is now the city
of Auburn, in 1794, and another in what

m '

20

INVENTORS AND INVENIIONS

Fig. 15.- A Primitive Spinner. (Figuier.)

Fig. 10.— Egyptian Women using the Distaff.

OF CAYUGA COUNTY, N. Y.

21

is now Ludlowville, in 1798.) The County was then with
out roads, and fallen and decaying timber encumbered the
ground, and this conveyance would-ride over (obstacles, which

could not be safely surmounted by the log-boat or wheeled
vehicles. In those early days, matron and maid availed
themselves of this mode of conveyance to attend religious
services and social gatherings. Whether this was more con-

22

INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS

ducive to Christianity, or good
digestion, we leave others to
decide. These and other improvements
and inventions not named, vvere
none of thern covered by patents,
and in fact antedate the patent
^ laws of this country, and we
admit that we cannot name with
Certainty, the particular persons
___^ to whom the credit ol these
^^i;;:^ inventions is due; although we
Fig. IB.- Reel of the oidcu Time, can name sonic of the. early pio-

FiG. 19.- Spinning Wheel for Flax.
neers who practiced those arts with advantage to themselves
and to the County.

OF CAYUGA COUNTY, N. Y.

23

Fig. 21.— Early Mode of Churning. The " Dash-Churn.'

24

INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS

The first white settlers in the present limits of the County,
were John Harris, from Harrisburgh, Pa., in 1778, who
located at Cayuga, where he established the first ferry for
crossing tlie lake. Roswell Franklin, from Wyoming, who
located near Aurora in 1789, and Benjamin Avery, at
Tallcot's Corners, in the same year. In 1790, Elisha Durkee
and Edward Paine settled
near Aurora. Colonel John
Hardenbergh settled in Au
burn in 1793, and erected
a grist mill in 1794, and
the place was known as
Hardenbergh's Corners un
til 1805, when it took its
present name. Charles Ken
dall, Ezekiel Landon, and
Alanson Tracy, were also
early settlers in Scipio.
These persons, or some of
them at least, and many
others not named, practiced such arts at an early day in
Cayuga County.
From 1793, onward to 1810, the Courity rapidly increased
in population, as at that time, the census shows a population
of 29,840. The industries of the County, too, were no less
marked than its population. At that tirae, 1,360 looms were
in operation, producing 340,870 yards of cloth. Eleven
Carding Mills, eleven Clothing Mills, nineteen Tanneries,
and forty-seven Distilleries, were also in operation. A
writer about that date, says : " The inhabitants clothe them
selves principally in the productions of their own families ;
and were it not for the exhorbitant number of their dis
tilleries, I should add are very temperate and industrious."

Fig. 22.— The Modern Eotary Churn,
Blanchard type.

OP CAYUGA COUNTY, N. Y. 25
C.'iyuga County, from 1810 up to the present time, has,
we think, in its enterprise and industries, kept fully up to
the necessities of the times, and will compare favorably with
any other county or locaUty. Whilst Agriculture, Manu
factures and Cornmerce aro inseparable and mutually de
pendent on eaoh other, it is not improper to inquire how
much the success of all these is due to the skill of the in
ventor, ¦ stimulated and protected by the patent laws of the
country. The system of granting patents was not known to the
ancients, and, in many countries does not at the present
time exist. The system was not, as many suppose, an in
vention of some New England Yankee, though New England
Yankees are many of them inventors ; but from Old England
we derived our patent laws, and like every thing else of
English origin, we have improved upon them. In England
the granting of patents was based on a statute pai5sed in
1624, in the reign of James the First.
In France, the earliest patent law was in 1791. The
patent system of the IJnited States of America, has grown up
under a positive grant in tbe Federal Constitution. The first
act was passed in 1790. The law was amended in 1793,
and the term was for fourteen years with a provision for. ex
tending the term of the patent, until the amendment of the
law, July 3, 1832, and this merely indicated how the ap
plication to Congress for an extension should be raade ; the
laws having from time to time been amended to the general
law now in force relating to patents, which is that of 1870.
By the act of 1836, patents were granted for fourteen years,
and provision was made for an extension in certain cases for
seven years more. In 1861, the original term was fixed at
seventeen years, and extensions prohibited. Patents for
designs may be taken out, for three and one-half, seven or
fourteen years, as tbe applicant may elect.

26 . INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS '
The whole number of patents granted for inventions
by the United States from 1790 to Noveraber 30,
1880, inclusive, is  235,059
For Desii/ns,  12,049
For 'J^-ade-marks,  8,108
For Labels,  2,367
Making a total of,  257,588
Of this number, 474 were granted to residents of Cayuga
County, for inventions ; the earliest one being granted to
Roswell Towsley of Scipio, for a plow, January 11, 1812,
and the last one Oct. 26, 1880, to J. M. Hurd, and J. W.
Mosher, of Auburn, i'or a washing raachine. Of the patents
granted, 6S were for harvesters; 11 for carriage axles and
boxes; 12 for plows; 10 for harvester knife grinders; 9
for washing machines ; 8 for clothes wringers; 8 for churns;
8 for threshing raachines ; and the balance distributed over a
wide field erabracing a large variety of subjects, including a
cherry-stoner, carpet-stretcher, animal poke, sturap extractor,
life-boat, floating dock, dental engine, steam engine, match
safe, and mill stone. Araong the patentees are found ladies
physicians, dentists, lawyers, bakers and brewers, blacksmiths,
silversmiths, machinists and manufacturer.'^, mayors, ex-
raajors and alderraen.
Of the earlier Inventors and Inventions, but little can with
certainty be learned, as the destruction of the Patent Office
and its records, by fire in 1836, cut off that source of in
forraation except in a few cases, where the specifications and
drawings were afterwards restored. With the later Inventors
and Inventions, much difficulty has been experienced in
obtaining the necessary facts.
From 1790 to 1836, inclusive, forty-six patents were
granted to residents of Cayuga County ; of which, ten were
for plows ; eight for threshing raachines ; five for stave
sawing and jointing ; two for spinning wheels ; three

OF CAYUGA COUNTY, N. Y. 27
for washing machines, and one each for a churn, harrow,
mill-.stone, morticing machine, hand rake, potash, pump,
raising water, saddle, bedstead, fanning raill, fence wire,
knife .sharpener, furnace, shears, cordage, weavers' harness,
and raanufacturing brandy from domestic articles.' From
this, it will be seen that all the threshing machine pcitenls,
and all the plow patents except two, were granted prior to
L837. The earliest patent issued to a resident of what is
now Cayugf. County, was Eor a plow.
It will be impossible in the limited tirae, to more than
briefly allude to a few of the foul- hundred and seventy-
four inventors of Cayuga County; and notice of many of the
inventions is necessarily oraitted, from inability to obtain the
required information.
Wm. H. Ward appears as an active inventor, covering a
wide field which embraces car-brakes and car- couplings,
bullet machinery, rotary steam engines, gearwheel, harvester
rake, &c.
M. C. Cronk appears as another inventor. Ten patents
were granted him on washing machines, clothes dryers,
bottle-stoppers, bed bottoms, and so forth.
Jacob Brinkerhoff appears as an improver of corn shellers,
clothes wringers, barbed fence wife, and fence posts.
S. W. and J. F. Palmer, are granted various patents on
clothes wringers, clothes dryers, reels, and snow shovels.
Allen Sherwood secured patents for improvements in
grain binders, mowing machines, corn-shellers, etc.
A. R Reynolds, patents for tempering steel and knife
sections. George W. Tripp, for dental chairs arid dental engines.
George J. Letch worth and Byron C. Smith appear as
inventors and patentees for improveraents in hames.
John H. Osborne, as an improver of tables and steam
heaters.

28

INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS

W. L. Bundy holds patents for his improvements in napkin
hooks and sleeve buttons.
David Wright, from legal defences, has tumed his attention
to far'm fences and fruit barrels, and holds jiatents therefor.
All of these inventions have merit, and many of them are
undoubtedly important and useful.

Pig. 23.— Primitive Hoe of Wood, in Natural Form.

Fig. 34 —Primitive lloe, having Blade of Bone.
Plows were of early origin. In the Old Testament, more
than seven centuries before the Christian Era, in Lsaiah,
second chapter, and fourth verse, and in Micah, fourth
chapter third verse, it is said, " They shall beat their swords
into plow-shares." The plow of the ancient Egyptians, was
of wood, a single crooked stick serving for the tail, and to this
was fastened by a rope, a horizontal beam.

Fig. 25.— Egyptians Plowing.
The Greeks used a plow made from a tree having diverg
ing branches, like the arms of an anchor.
These plows were probably shod with bronze or iron, as
represented in Fig. 27.

oi' CAYUGA COUNTY, N. Y. "^29
Wooden plows, with wrought iron shares laid with steel
and known as the " Bull Plow," were in use in this country
within the memory of persons now living.

^.^^^" t^^'-^.^'^

Fig. 26.— Plow of the Ancient Greeks.

Fig. 27.
¦ In the early part of the eighteenth century, plows were
made in Holland, with mould -boards of wrought iron or
steel, and some of these were introduced into England and
Scotland about that time.
About 1784, James Small, of Berwickshire, Scotland, who
wrote a treatise on plows, made cast iron mould-boards and
wrought iron shares, and in 1785 made cast iron shares.
Charles Newbold, of New Jersey, obtained a patent June
26, 1797, for a plow. This is believed to have been the
first cast iron plow made in the United States. The share
was of wrought iron.
David Peacock, of Burlington, N. J., obtained a patent
April 1, 1807. This had a cast iron mould-board, and a
wrought iron share edged with steel.
FIRST PATENT GRANTED TO A RKSTDENT OF CAYUGA COUN'IY.
From the patent office records, it appears that Roswell

so'

INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS

Towsley obtained the first patent granted to a resident of
Cayuga County. This was for a plow, and was granted
January 11, 1812. Mr. Towsley was a blacksmith by trade,
and settled at Aurora, about 1806, previous to which, he
resided at Manlius in On
ondaga County. Where
he was born and the date
of his birth are uncertain.
He built in 1817, at
Aurora, the first steam
flouring mill west of the
Hud.son. The building
was of stone and is now
standing on the dock
'^ west of Richard Morgan
5 and Son's store, has long
I been, and is now used as
"l a store house. It had
SS four run of stone, manu-
I factured excellent flour,
and it was claimed when
in operation, that it cost
nothing for fuel, as the
large quantity of wood
¦ burnt produced ashes
enough to pay for the
wood. It was in operation
only about a year when
Mr. Towfsley failed and
soon after becarae de
ranged. He was sent to the Lunatic Asylum in New York,
where he died about 1820. He was an enterprising man, and
carried on in addition to his flouring mill, a tannery, shoe
shop, large blacksmith shop and a fui-nace.

OF CAYUGA COUNTY, N. Y. 31
The destruction of the patent office, with all its records, by
fire in 1836, has deprived us of a knowledgeof his invention
from that source, and the lapse of time renders it impossible
to ascertain with any degree of certainty the nature of the
invention. As Towsley's invention, or at least his patent
antedates that of Jethro Wood niore than two years, and as
he was running a furnace, it would be. interesting to know
the character of his invention. . , . ,
Mathew Patrick, of Scipio, also obtained a patent on a
plow, dated June 2, 1813. This antedates Wood's, more than
a year. Of this invention nothing can be learned, and the
name of the inven'tof is not within the recollection of the
" oldest inhabitant"
Jonathan Swan, of Scipio, a Friend, was granted a patent
July 5, 1814. and another April 24, 1824, for improvements
in plow.s. He was a merchant as well as a natural mechanic.
He was at one time in partnership with Wood and Towsley
in the plow business ; and, for ^ time, they worked together
in thesame shop. He came to Aurora about 1810, from
western Oneida County, and was a very intelligent man;
had a large fanqiily, many of whom became distinguished as
jurists and in other positions. He died at Aurora and was
buried in the Friends' Ceraetery in the Quaker settlement.
Jedidiah Morgan, who with J. B. Harris, October 11,
1814, obtained a patent on a plow, was an enterprising farmer
who settled at an early day a, short distance south of Aurora,
where -he resided some time, but in later years, ,in Aurora, where
he died in 1826. He was an energetic raan, an influential
pdlitician of the Clintonian school, and a Senator at the time
of his death. With no remarkable mechanical talents, he
furnished the pecuniary means for Harris, who was a black
smith by trade, not the most skillful of his calling, but a
most worthy citizen.
R. Towsle^', and Jonathan Siwan, jointly obtained a patent

32 INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS
on a plow, which from its title apparently settles the ques
tion and decides the character of their preceding inventions.
The records describe this last patent as a " Bull Plow." This
kind of plow was well known, and the only one in general
use prior to the introduction of the cast iron plow. The
mould-board was shaped frorn wood, and the edge and point
or share, was of wrought iron faced with steel, and the mould-
board had thin strips of iron fastened to it to protect it from
too rapid wear. (See Fig. 28.)
THE JETHRO WOOD CAST IRON PLOW.
To Jethro Wood, a resident of Cayuga County, the
country is indebted for the "Cast Iron Plow," in general
use at the present day. The inventor was born at White
Creek, Washington County, N. Y, March 16, 1774, and died
in the town of Ledyard, Cayuga County, N. Y., Sept. 18,
1834, in the sixty-first year of his age. He married at the
age of nineteen, and seven years afterwards, in 1800, he
moved with his little family to Scipio. His family occupied
a log house, two and one-half miles south-cast of what is known
as Poplar Ridge, until he could erect a log house and open a
clearing on land located three-fourths of a raile west of Poplar
Ridge which was giveu hira by his father. When the house
was ready he moved his family into it. In this they lived
Eor years until his farm was cleared, when a frame house
was (greeted on the same ground and continued to be occu
pied until his decease. The house is yet standing, and is
owned and occupied by Wm. R. Hazard.
Mr. Wood's mechanical and inventive talent manifested
itself at an early age. It is said when only five years old he
commenced his experiments. He melted his mother's pewter
spoons to cast a mould-board for a little plow, and out the
small buckles from his father's harness to complete one for
the cat to draw the plow with. These early attempts were

Fig. 29.— Jethro Wood's Cast Iron Plow; From copy of original fron Vol PV of Rpstorpii PatBnts nn-nri,,
possession o the Cayuga County Historical S?^ciety. I, Elevatfon of mIuU boaTside of%" ow ^^ '"
ft, Mould board ; c, Eeyerse side of Share ; d. Side view of Knob ; e. Land-side Eleva
tion of Plow ; f. Inside view of Land-side.

34 INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS
suppressed, for a while at least, by the old fashioned whip
ping that followed, and no active efforts were raade in that
direction again until after marriage. At the time of his
first settlement in this County, the condition of the country
was such that plows were not a necessity under the then
system of cultivation. Mr. Wood, long before the country
was really in condition for the plow, began his experiments,
and turnips and potatoes were shaped by his knife and hands
into miniature plows, as models of form. He commenced
active experiments in Scipio as early as 1812, and his first
patent was obtained July 1, 1814, and his patent for the
plow in its perfected form, September 1, 1819.
When or where his first plows wafe cast,' is uncertain, as
several localities claim the credit. One of Wood's plows,
and it is believed by many to be the fir.st, was cast under a
tree standing at the time on the ground now, occupied by the
residence of David Raymond, at Poplar Ridge. The iron
was melted in a broken potash kettle lined with clay. Char
coal was used for fuel, and an ordinary blacksmith's bellows
furnished the blast. Mr. Wood and Mr. Asa Shourds, fur
nished the power. The patterns were made of wood by a
carpenter and joiner residing in the vicinity, with the aid of
Mr. Wood, who furnished a model made from a potato for
the occasion. Afterwards he employed Joseph Ridgeway, a
carpenter and builder who had failed in the business in New
York, to aid him, and together they spent some six or eight
raonths in experiments with the plow for the purpose of
perfecting it. Mr. Ridgeway^ subsequently engaged in the
manufacture of the Wood plow at Columbus, Ohio, accumu
lated a fortune, returned to New York and paid his old
creditors in full.
Mr. Wood found great difficulty at first in obtaining the
proper kind, quality and mixture of iron, which was only
determined by careful experiment. Mr. Wood also met

OF CAYUGA COUNTY, N. Y. 35
with great difficulty in introducing his plows among the
farmers, and was often obliged to give plows away to intro
duce them. The prejudice against what was termed " Pot
Metal Mould-boards" was universal. He traveled extensively
himself, and sent agents to all parts of the country to bring
the plow into use. In his early eflorts, want of skill in the
foundryraen often compelled him to mould his castings him
self, as well as always furnish the patterns at his o-.~"i cost,
the foundryraen having no confidence in his succes3. Furna
ces were few and small in those days. In his perl cted plow,
the mould-board was constructed and shaped on scientiflc
principles, every inch of the surface being raade to bear an
equal pressure so as to wear alike, and in 1819, his perfected
plow possessed all the important elements of lihe plow in use
at the present day. That patent was extended by act of
Congress in 1832, the only way that an extension could be
obtained beyond the original terra, which was fourteen
years. Prior to the extension, defects in the patent laws
prevented his enforcing his just claims figainst manufacturers
who refuse(I to pay. Then followed amendments to the
patent laws, and expen.sive suits and trials for his children
which consuraed the extended term. Since this- iraportant
and valuable invention has become without restriction open
to the public, manufacturers and farraers not only appreciate,
but acknowledge its value, which fairly estimated in dollars
would reach the millions.
" Although previous attempts had been made to construct
cast plows. Wood's was the first that proved entirely success
ful, and through the excellence of his invention and un
wearied labors to perfect its manufacture and introduce it
among the farmers, in connection with its cheapness and
efficiency, he is justly regarded as the original inventor
and successful introducer of the plow as now used by the
farraers of the whole country ; in the sarae way that to Fulton,

36 INVENTOilS ANi) INVENTIONS
the inventor of the present form of the steam-boat, is due
the credit of placing it successfully in use."
This is an imperfect history of an invention with which
the name of Jethro Wood, of Cayuga County, N. Y., will for
all time be inseparably connected. A man of whom our
distinguished fellow citizen, the late Secretary Seward, has
so justly said : " No person has benefitted his country
pecuniarily more, and no man has been as inadequately
rewarded." I arn enabled to present, through the courtesy of an un
known source, a few extracts from a little volume written by
Mr. Frank Gilbert, entitled " Jethro Wood, Inventor of the
Modern Plow." What I have already written concerning
the early conception of a castiron plow by Mr. Wood, is
confirmed by the work acknowledged, in which is also told
the following curious episode, which the. author thinks
strikingly illustrative of the perversities of fortune to Mr.
Wood, in the gloomy days when he was laboring to win
appreciation for his valuable invention.
The author says : " It is a story of a Czar and a Citizen,"
and continues :
" All uncertainty as to the feasability of the new plow
having been removed, and actuated by that broad philanthropy
which was one of the peculiar charms in the character of Mr.
Wood, he desired to extend as widely as possible the area of
his usefulness, and concluded to make the Czar of Russia,
so long the chief grain exporting country of the world, the
present of one of his plows. During the Revolutionary war,
then fresh in the Araerican mind, that great sovereign,
Catherine of Russia, had been the staunch friend of this
country, and that, too, without being irapelled by jealousy of
Great Britain. It seems to be a peculiar trait in the Roman
off family to admire liberty in the abstract, however absolute
in practice. Sharing the prevailing good will toward Russia,

JETHRO WOOD.

(By the courtesy of Messrs. Rhodes & McClure, Chicago, publishers of
" Jethro Wood, Inventor of the Modern Plow."
12 mo., p. 72, Chicago, ISS-i,)

b

38 INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS
Mr. Wood conceived this happy thought of making a truly
substantial contribution to Cossack civilization, a civilization
ever ready, with all its crudeness, to adopt foreign improve
ments. That gift, in one point of view slight, proved of
great benefit to Russian Agriculture. It is impossible to
state the extent of actual advantage derived by Russia from
that truly imperial gift. It was in effect giving to that
country, second only to the United States in area of tillage,
in proportion to population, the free use of the perfected
plow. In an old copy of the New York Tribune, in its
palmy days of Horace Greeley and Solon Robinson, the tale
of the Plow and the Ring is unfolded. It runs thus :"
"'During the year 1820, Jethro Wood sent one of his
plows to Alexander I, Emperor of Russia, and the peculiar
circumstances attending the gift and its reception formed a
large part of the newspaper gossip of the day. Wood, though
a man of cultivation, intellectually as well as agriculturally,
was not familiar with French, which was then as now the
diploraatic language. So he requested his personal friend.
Dr. Samuel Mitchell, PrsLsident of the New York Society of
Natural History and Sciences, to write a letter in French to
accorapany the gift.' "
" 'The Autocrat of all the Russias received the plow and
letter, and sent back a diamond ring — whieh the newspapers
declared to be worth from $7,000 to $15,000— in token of
his appreciation. By some indirection, the ring was not
delivered to the donor of the plow, but to the writer of the
letter, and Dr. Mitchell instantly appropriated it to his own
use. Wood appealed to the Russian Minister at Washington
for redress. The Minister sent to his Emperor and asked to
whom the ring belonged, and Alexander replied that it was
intended for the inventor of the plow. Armed with this
authority, Wood again demanded the ring of Mitchell. But
there were no steamships or telegraphs in those days, and

OF CAYUGA COUNTY, N. Y. 39
Mitchell declared that in the long interval in which they had
been waiting to hear from Russia, he had giveti'lt to the
cause of the Greeks, who were then rising to throw off the
yoke of their Turkish oppressors. A newspaper of. that time
calls Mitchell's course 'an ingenious mode of quartering on
the enemy,' and the inventor's friends seem to have believed
that the ring had been sold for his benefit. At all events it
never came to light again, and Wood, a peaceful raan, a
Quaker by profession, did not push the matter further.' "
" Perhaps another and quite as potent a reason why
Friend Wood did not follow up this matter was that
weightier affairs demanded his immediate and entire attention.
One difficulty was overcome ordy to develop another. No
sooner had he silenced the cavils of the farmers and demon
strated the value of his patent, than infringements upon his
rights threatened to, and actually did, rob him of the fruits
of his invention." * * -» * ' * *
" Not even the cruel wrongs hc sustained at the hands of
dishonest infringers could turn the sweetness of his kindly
ternper. Nature had endowed him richly every way, and
no gift had been abused. Physically, his was the highest
type of manly beauty. Six feet and two inches in height,
perfect in proportion, courtly in manner, his presence was
worthy his character."
The subsequent labors of Benjamin Wood, the son of
Jethro Wood, who received the invention of his father as a
legacy, were full of zeal, energy, trials, disappointments and
untiring labor, which finally resulted in an unequivocal
decision by the Circuit Court at Albany, after a three days'
trial, that the plow then in general use all over the country
was unlike any other, and that the improvements which
rendered it so effective were due solely to Jethro Wood, and
that all manufacturers must pay his heirs for the privilege of
making it. Although this triuraph was great, the patent

40 INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS
had little more than a year to run, and while Benjamin
Wood was 'exerting his efforts with a fair degree of success,
for its extension, he suddenly fell dead, while conversing
with one of his friends, of heart disease, and the patent
expired without renewal.
On settling the affairs of the estate, it was found that
less than five hundred and fifty dollars had ever been
received from this important inventicm.
Subsequent efforts by the reraaining heirs, consisting of
four daughters, to obtain provision ahd protection, in whose
interests the exclusive right of making and vending the im-
pi-ovcments of the plow should rest for seven years, were
made, and a bill providing that twenty-five cents on each
plow made might be exacted, passed the Senate unanimously.
In the House, tho bill was killed by the money of the plow
manufacturers, who then swarmed in Washington, and the
two younger of the Quaker sisters who had been most active
in the rnatter retired defeated, and we may add defrauded.
The very documents which had been used in their suit and
which some friendly (?) members of Congress advised them
to deposit in Washington, mysteriously disappeared ; nor from
that time to this have they been seen or heard of ; and thus
has perished the last vestige of proof of their father's in
ventive and incomparably beneficial genius.
Avery Babbitt, another inventor of Cayuga County, was
born in Bennington, Vermont, September 1, 1806. Died at
Slaterville, in Tompkins County, September 12, 1872. He
learned the carpenter and joiner trade, and followed the bus
iness until 1843. For some time prior to his removal
to Auburn, which was in 1838, he resided in Locke, in this
County. In 1847, Mr. Babbitt superintended the construction of
the first carpet looms for use in Barber's Carpet Factory.
He obtained his first patent on looms, October 8, 1850, and

OF CAYUGA COUNTY, N. Y. 41
subsequently other patents were granted hira for imjirove-
ments on bolt-cutters, prismatic lathes, loop raachines, etc.
Looras were raanufactured by himself, and under the firm
narae of Babbitt & Hickey, quite extensively, and are now
in use not only in Auburn, but in Philadelphia and other
places. He was original in his conceptions and undertak
ings, one of the best mechanics in the County, fixed in pur
pose, energetic and persistent in whatever he undertook, and
he filled with great credit, if not with profit to himself, an
important place in the mechanical and industrial progress of
this County.
The name of Calvin Young, another inventor of Cayuga
County, appears on the records of the patent office. Hewas
born in Auburn, June 31, 1830. A natural mechanic, his
tastes in that direction were manifested at an early ivge.
When but fourteen years of age, he constructed a fire engine
which did excellent service in extinguishing a fire which
occurred in Court Street, before the somewhat tardy "City
Firemen " of that day, reached the ground with their appa
ratus. In early life, through the kindness of the late Cyrus C.
Dennis, he was afforded opportunities in the machine shops
carried on in the prison under the superintendence of Wm.
H. Hudson, one of the best mechanics of that day, from
whose instructions he derived great benefit in after life.
These opportunities were further improved upon under Mr.
Avery Babbitt when constructing the first carpet looms for
Barber's Carpet Factory. Subsequently, he was eraployed
in Brooklyn and Buffalo, in building tools and machinery
for manufacturing saddlery and harness hardware. He was
also employed for a time, in the Auburn and Syracuse Rail
Road shops. In 1850, he entered into partnership with 0.
H. Burdick, in building straw cutters, and ' subsequently
engaged with Beardsley, Keeler and Curtis, as assistant fore-

42 INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS
man, and continued in that position until the expiration of
their prison contract, about three years, when John Curtis
obtained the contract and was succeeded by Sheldon & Co.,
Mr. Young continuing as foreman through all the changes.
As foreraan for Sheldon & Co., in 1858, he superintended
the construction of the first Wheeler raachines manufactured
in the prison, and from that time to the present has been
intimately connected with their manufacture.
His first patented invention was a bullet machine, the
main features of which were appropriated by others, and
from which, by reason of a defect in his patent, he received
no remuneration. He also obtained two patents on machines
for upsetting and forming the collars on carriage axles.
From these he derived pecuniary advantage. A patent was
also obtained on self-rake improveraents.
A firm unviravering friend and estimable citizen, with
opinions of his own, which once deliberately formed are not
easily changed, he does not hesitate to express in plain words
and at times with much force, his convictions. His life has
been a successful one, due wholly to his own efforts and
industry. Charles W. Miles, another Cayuga County inventor, raade
improvements in carpet looms for which he received a patent.
The improvement related to the shuttle-box and the shading
of the figures in carpets. The iraprovement is in use in this
city, Philadelphia and other places. He also learned his
trade with Avery Babbitt, in this city. He was born in
Sennett, Cayuga County, October 18, 1826. For eleven
years he was engaged in the construction of carpet looms.
Frora 1864 to 1867 he was engaged with Avery Babbitt in
the manufacture of piano stools, since which time he has
been employed as foreman in the Cayuga Chief, and D. M.
Osborne & Co.'s Reaper Factory. Mr. Miles is another self-
made man, a good mechanic, and an estimable citizen.

OF CAYUGA COUKTY, N. Y. 43
Frederick Van Patten, another inventor of Cayuga County,
was born in the town of Victory, September 22, 1836. At
the iige of sixteen he became an apprentice to thc machinist's
trade, and at the end of three years found employment in
Colt's Armory, at Hartford, Conn. Here he remained until
1861, when he accepted a position in the Fire Arms Manu
factory of the Remingtons, at Ilion, N. Y. In 1864, he came
to Auburn, and engaged inthe mechanical supervision of the
manufacture of- the E. D. Clapp patent thill coupling, which
was manufactured in a small way in a part of the City Mills on
Mechanic Street. To thill couplings, fifth wheels were not
long after added. More room was required as the business
increased, and in 1869 a large building was erected on Water
Street for the purpose. The line of goods manufactured,
jnci-eased, and in 1874 a large factory was erected on Gene
see Street, corner of Division. A stock company was formed
in 1876, and the business has increased from year to year,
and to-day this conipany furnish complete sets of forged
irons for carriages, which, for top-buggies, requires over one
hundred pieces of hardware.
Numerous patents have from time tp time been granted
to Mr. Van Patten for improvements in the dies used in the
drop presses of the establishraent for shaping with exactness
and facility the many different pieces embraced in carriages
as constructed at the present time. He has also, more
recently, been granted a patent in conjunction with E. D.
Clapp, on a machine for rolling the iron for making car
riage clips.
E. D. Clapp, Esq., a natural mechanic and practical car
riage maker as well as a practical business man, whose name
is inseparably connected with the foregoing enterprise, and
to whom in a great measure the magnitude and success of
the business is due, is also an inventor ; and to his first inven
tion, an improved thill coupling, is due .the 'first establish-

44 INVENTORS AKD INVENTIONS
ment of tliis business ; a business which has grown to such
astonishing magnitude in so brief a space of time, and which
to-day is furnishing to carriage makers throughout the coun
try asuperior class of carriage hardware, and to threehundred
of the citizens of Auburn constant employment.
Mr. Clapp was born in the town of Ira, Cayuga County
N. Y, November 13, 1828. For the last twenty-five years
he has been a resident of the city of Auburn. He learned
the carriage maker's trade in Ira, and carried it on success
fully there, for a time, before moving to Auburn, and he is
now preparing, in connection with others, to renew the bus
iness on a more extensive scale than was ever dreamed of in
the earlier days of carriage making.
W. W. Crane, a Cayuga County inventor, though born in
London, England, October 27, 1820, and learning the machin
ist's trade there, has resided here for nearly thirty years.
He first came to this country in 1848 ; remained but a short
tirne and returned to England, and again, in 1851, returned
to this country where he has since resided. He has obtained
nine patents, one of which was for an invention of Mrs. Crane
and himself which was taken out by them jointly, it being
for a " Self -lubricating Box for Car Axles."
His first patent was granted in 1857, on a machine for pol
ishing morocco leather. His subsequent patents were for
steam boilers and steara engines, couplings, hangers and
.self-lubricating boxes for shafts, and self-lubricating pulleys.
Some of these improveraents are in extensive use. The self-
lubricating box and hanger are manufactured in New York
City, and at Woonsoeket Falls, R. L, by different parties, to
the extent of $10,000 monthly. For six years past Mr.
Crane has carried on a foundry and machine shop on Water
Street, Auburn, eraploying at the present time, twenty-eight
raen on general job work and repairs. Mr. Crane is a good
mechanic and a worthy citizen.

OF CAYUGA COUNTY, N. Y. 45
Isaac Stark and Lyman Perrigo are inventors of valuable
improvements in spoke machines. Their patent was ob
tained June 13, 1854, and from that time to the present,
machines have been made by Perrigo & Co., of Groton, Tomp
kins County, N. Y., and the raachines are now in use. in fif
teen different states of the Union. Lyraan Perrigo was born
in the town of Venice, Cayuga County, Noveraber 14, 1821,
and died in Groton, Tompkins Co., October 15, 1870. He
was a machinist by trade, a good mechanic, and airaed to
excel in his chosen field, and every raachine and implement
that passed through his hands bore the impress .of his rae
chanical skill and inventive talent.
Isaac Stark, the co-inventor with Perrigo, died in Genoa,
Cayuga County, where he resided for a long time previous.
He was a carpenter by trade, and at one time carried ou the
raanufacture of grain cradles and hand hay rakes at that
place quite extensively. He was a superior raechanic. The
beauty and finish of his handiwork, was proverbial. In the
days of harvesting b^' hand, the man who was able to obtain
a Stark cradle felt that he had the best implement of the
kind in existence, and with ^ good binder behind hira with
a Stark rake, it was expected that a little more work would
be accomplished than could.be done by any other combina
tion of hand tools then in existence.
Elliott G. Storke, in 1867, established the manufacture of
iron bench and block planes, which he conducted up to his
decease. He, as an inventor, has been granted several pat
ents for improvements in that class of tools. He was born
in Aureliu.s, in this County, June 18, 1811, and died in
Auburn, Sept. 11, 1879.
Mr. Storke received a limited common school, and partial
academic education, which was further improved upon by a
¦ careful study of books without the aid of teachers. At the
age of sixteen he engaged in teaching school'. In 1842 he

46 ]NVENTORS AND INVENTIONS
was appointed County Superintendent of the public schools
of this County. He next engaged in book publishing. Fi
nancial embarrassment in 1856, followed by the panic of
1857, forced the firm with which he was connected, into li
quidation. During the Rebellion, he accumulated material
for its bistory, which he published. In 1866, with others,
he was engaged in organizing the Merchants' Union Express
Company. Mr. Storke was an enterprising roan, who, through a long
and active business life retained the esteem of his fellow
citizens. C. B. Hutchinson, a successful inventor of Cayuga County,
resided in Auburn, corner of Grover and South Streets, at
the time of his death, which took place September 12, 1-869.
Mr. Hutchinson was born in Marion, Wayne County, N.
Y, September 17, 1818. He learned the machinist's trade,
and came to Auburn in 1854. Was a natural mechanic and
inventor, aud his inventions exhibited remarkable skill and
adaptation of means to ends. His inventions mainly per
tained to barrel machinery from which he derived consider
able advantage, but the public much greater. He also raade
itn[)roveraents in cider mills and grape presses, which have
been extensively manufactured and used, and continue to
be so manufactured and used. He received the sum of
$20,000.00 for the patent on his cider and grape mill and
press. Charles F. Davis, inventor, has been granted a patent on
a harvester rake, and also on a grain drill. His improve
ment on grain drills consists in an application of devices by
which the operator can change the drill teeth frora single to
double rank, or from a straight line to a zig-zag line, and
vice versa, by a single raoveraent of a lever. This invention
is one of much value, and is now^ in general use, and from it
he has derived considerable pecuniary advantage. Mr. Davis

OF CAYUGA COUNTY, N. Y.

47

is now a resident of Auburn, and was born in the town of
Aurelius, Cayuga Co., August 10, 1845. He farmed it for
a number of years in Aurelius, on the farm on which he was
born ; never learned any mechanical trade, but is a natural
raechanic ; can handle tools skillfully, and generally makes
his own models and experimental machinery ; is a very
worthy man and a good citizen.
INVENTORS IN HARVESTING MACHINERY.

Fig. 31.— Sickle of the Bronze Epoch,
found by M. Desor, at Chevroux.
(From Figuier's " Primitive
Man.")

Fig. 32.— Sickle of the Iron Epoch. (From
Figuier's " Primitive Man." )

Fig. 33.— Egyptian Harvesting Scene ; Application of the Sickle.

48

INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS

In harvesting grain, the sickle was probably the earliest
instrument in use. It is mentioned in Deuteronomy, six-

PiG. 34.— Sickle of the Modems.

Fig. 35.—" The Reaper," (after Millett.) Application of the Sickle.

Pig. 36.— The "Ani-anl," or Eeaping Implement of Java, a. Hand-piece • ft Long
Spatula, shaped left-hand piece.
teenth chapter, ninth verse, and again in the twenty-third"
chapter, twenty-fifth verse. This dates it back for three
thousand years.'

OF CAYUGA COUNTY, N. Y. 49
In Java, an instrument known as the "Ani-ani," and
costing about three-pence, is used for gathering or reaping

Fig. 37. — Application of the '^Ani-ani."
grain This instrument is held by the reaper in a peculiar
raanner, and with it he crops off each separate ear with a
few inches of the straw. This method of i;eaping has been

Fig. 38.— Eeaping Machine described by Pliny the Elder.
iraraemorially practiced in that country and is universally
followed. It has been conjectured that the reaper using the " Ani-
ani" takes one of the two parts of the implement, (a), in the
right hand, and the other part, (i), in the left ; and that in

60

INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS

passing thera over each other hke the blades of shears, the
straw between them is cut and together with the head of
grain, falls into an apron or basket worn by the reaper.
The first mention of a machine for reaping grain, is given
by Pliny the Elder, early in the first century, who describes
it as a van or cart of large size, with project
ing teeth on the edge, which was driven
through the standing corn by an ox yoked in
the reverse direction, a:nd used at that tirae
in the extensive fields of the lowlands of
Gaul, and which served to gather the crop
by stripping off the heads.
The use of this machine is believed to
have continued through centuries, as PaUa
dius, (an Eastern Prelate and Ecclesiastical
writer), early in the fifth century describes the sarae raachine.
When it went out of use is unknown.

Fig. 39.— Enlarged
Section of Stripping
Teeth of Harvesting
Machine described
by Pliny the Elder.
First Cqntury.

Fig. 40.— Modern Harvesting Cradle Scythe.
The first patent granted for a reaping raachine, was in
England, July 4th, 1799, to Joseph Boyce. This machine

OF CAYUGA COUNTY, N. Y.

61

FiG. 41.— Application of the Harvesting Cradle Scythe.

Fig. 42.— Scythe of the Iron Epoch, from tho Lacustrine Settlements of Switzerland,
(Figuier's "Primitive Man,")

52

INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS.

Fig. 43,— Application of the Scythe ; Laboring Colons, (12th Century,) after a Miniature
in a Manuscript of the Ste Chapelle, of the National Library of Paris.
Lacroix, "Bibliophile Jacob."

Fig. 44.— Scythe of Modern Times ; Used for Mowing Grass.

Elevation.

Plan

Fig. 45.— Drawing as Suggested from the Description in Meare's Specificati

54 INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS
had a series of knives or cutters afiixed to the lower end of
a vertical spindle, which was arranged on wheels, and caused
to revolve against the grain by being j.jushed forward from
behind. In the following year. Letters Patent were granted
for a mechanical reaper to Robert Meares, of Frome, Somer
setshire, on the twentieth of May.
Various attempts were made and patents granted in Eng
land prior to the holding of the World's Fair in 1851, none
of which had come into use, and all of whicii had evidently
been forgotten. The exhibition of McCormick's and Hus-
sey's reapers at that time, awakened a fresh interest in John
Bull on the subject, and a trial in the field convinced him
that Brother Jonathan was fully a match for him in peace
as well as war.
The earliest patent granted in the United States on Har
vesting Machines, was to Richard E'l-ench and John T. Haw
kins, of New Jersey, May 17, 1803, for a machine to cut
grain. Seventeen patents were granted prior to that of Obed
Hussey, December 31, 1833, which was the first really prac
tical reaping machine, and contained raany of the elements
of the machines in use at the present day.
Cyrus H. McCormick's patent was of subsequent date, his
first being granted .June 21, 1834.
Harvesting machines and Harvesting machinery, have long
been constructed in this country. Thonias Hussey, brother of
Obed Hussey, of Baltimore, the inventor of the Hussey Reap
ing machine, commenced its manufacture in Auburn about
1840. They were first constructed in the old oil mill which
occupied a portion of the ground on which the works of D.
M. Osborne & Co. now stand, and the m.achine, in an improved
form, is now manufactured by I. W. Quick on Mechanic
Street. Althougli Mr. Thoinas Hussey was long connected
with the manufacture, I cannot learn that he obtained patents
for any of his improvements. Mr. Obed Hussey was one of

Fig. 46.— Plan View, aud Section of Finger Bar of Bussey Machine.

I

OF CAYUGA COUNTY, N. Y. 57
the earliest inventors of reaping machines, and to him the
credit is due of devising a cutting apparatus and improving
the same, that has stood the test of time, and reraains sub
stantially that in general use at the present day, to wit : The
reciprocating escaloped cutter and the open slotted guard
finger. Araong the earliest grants of patents for harvesting
machines, the name of Wm. A. Kirby appears. Though
some of his earlier patents were granted to him while a resi
dent of Buffalo in this state, he rnay well be claimed as a
Cayuga County Inventor. Mr. Kirby was born in the town
ship of Scipio, in that part of it now known as the town of
Ledyard, Septernber 17, 1817, but is now a resident of the
City of Auburn. His early educational advantages were
liraited and confined to the conimon school. When but
twelve years of age, he drove a team on the tow-path of the
canal from Seneca Falls to A.lbany and back, taking the
whole care of the team on the trip. When old en(jugh, he
learned the carpenter's trade, and followed that occupation
six year.s. He farmed it ten years, running a threshing
machine and clover mili during the fall and winter months
of four of those years, raaking all necessary repairs of the
raachines hiraself. In 1852, and during the summer, he
removed to Buffalo and entered into the employment of Mr.
E. B. Forbush of that place, who in July of that year, had
taken out a patent for improvements in a grain and grass
harvester. In the construction of the Forbush machine, Mr.
Kirby afforded valuable aid.
Mr. Kirby constructed one of those machines for exhibi
tion at the State Fair, which was held at Utica that year,
commencing the work thc fourth day of August and com
pleting it the fourth day of September, ready for shipment
to Utica, where it was exhibited at the fair of that season as
already mentioned,

58 INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS
The Forbush raachines were manufactured in Buffalo by
a company of which the Smith Brothers were the principal
parties. The com])any were sued as infringers of the
Ketchum patents by the owners thereof, and were forced to
discontinue the manufacture.
From witnessing the operation of the Forbush in the
fiekl, and with the view of remedying its defects and at the
same time avoid the Ketchura patents, Mr. Kirby in 1855,
undertook the construction of the Kirby machine which was
completed in that year, and he obtained his first jjatent April
15, 1856, and the second, Septernber 2, of the same year.
The first related to the metliod of connecting the guard' fin
gers to the finger bar, and projecting rivet heads and spaces
in connection with the cutters and finger.s. The patent of
September 2, 1856, contained the important feature of pivot
ing tho main driving and supporting wheel to an arm whieh
was in turn hinged to the frame of the machine concentric
to the first gear shaft ; which arrangement perniitted the
wheel to swing on its hinged connection with the gear frame,
independent of it and the frame ; and the cutting apparatus
connected therewith to rise and fall independent of the up
and down motions of the road wheel. A seat for the driver
was pivoted to the frame of the machine and fulcrumed on
the axle and its arm, so that the weight of the drivei' was
added to the wheel to give it sufficient adhesion to the ground
to drive the cutters, and at the same time relieve the cuttino-
apparatus and frame from undue pressure on the ground,
when used in mowing ; by this arrangement of the wheel
and frame, the cutting apparatus could be set at different
heights from the ground for reaping grain.
To an understanding of this arrangement, and its distinc
tive difference from the Forbush machine, it may be stated
that in the Forbush ma'chine, the main driving and road
wheel was rigidly connected to the frame of the machine so

Fig. 48.— Forbush Machine as a Mower.

Fig. 49.— ForhusH Machine as a Reaper.

60 INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS.
that the frarae work and cutting apparatus partook of the
up and down movements of the wheel when passing over
the ground ; the cutter apparatus at its inner end or point of
connection with the frame, being influenced by the vertical
movements of the main wheel, which by the arrangement of
,the Kirby devices was avoided.
The Forbush was constructed with bracket connections
between the frame work and finger bar, by which means,
the cutting apparatus could be set at varying heights for
converting it into a reaper. In this respect, the Forbush
was an improvement on the Ketchum machine, which could
only be converted into a reaper, by an enlargement of the
main wheel by bolting lugs or segment rirasto its periphery,
wliich adinitted only of a limited adjustment in the height
of the cutting apparatus.
The controlling feature in the Ketchum machine, was an
unobstructed space between the driving wheel and the finger
bar and its supports. In this respect the Foi-bush and the
Ketchum machines were alike ; but in the Kirby, the finger
bar was extended at its inner end, close to the main wheel,
thus closing substantially the open space between the wheel
and cutting apparatus ; the independent up and down move
ment of the wheel permitting the cutting apparatus to fol
low the ground in mowing.
Mr. Kirby has from time to time made improvements in
his raachine which was, with the Ketchum and Forbush
types, denominated " one-wheeled machines." He has also
raade iraproveraents in two-wheeled raachines and revolving
reel rakes, for all of which he has obtained patents, number
ing in all, on harvesters, seventeen, besides several others for
improvements in other departments of which it is not neces
sary to more particularly speak.
The manufacture of the Kirby machine was comraenced
in Buffalo, N. Y., by the Buffalo Agricultural Works, Mr.

''^^^v^-?-^^^^^^^^^^^:^^-^^:^^^-^

Fig. 50.-Perspective View of the Ketchum Machine, a. Section

of Cutter Knives.

62

INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS

D. M. Osborne, being one of the 'company. In 1858, two
hundred of these machines were manufactured in Auburn,
by Mr. 0. II. Burdick, for Osborne & Holbrook, the firm

FiG. 51.— Early Kirby Machine.
consisting of D. M. Osborne and 0. I. Ilolljrook. In 1851)
the firm of D. M. O.^boriie & Co. was formed for the manu
facture of these machines in Auburn. D. M. 0.-;borne, Cyrus
C. Dfunis and Charles P. Wood conijiosed the firm. Mr.
Wood retired in 18i)2, and Mr. Dennis died in 18H6. After
the death of Mr. Dennis, Mr. John U. Osliorne ami Mr. 0.
II. Burdick became partners. These machines continued lo

X^H

-L ULI Kuby M icliine

«/1 J,
Hi

be manufactured extensively by the firm up to 1875, when
the Cayuga Chief Manufacturing Company beeame consoli
dated with the Co., and orgauized under the manufacturing
laws of the state as a stock company under the name and
style of D. M. Osborne & Co.

64 Inventors and inventions.
In 1880, the number of machines manufactured by this
company reached 16,000, and the company furnished employ
raent for one thousand of the citizens of Auburn.
The Kirby machine continued to be raanufac¬tured at Buf
falo and at Cambridge City, Indiana; and in limited num
bers for a short time at Other points. The whole number of
raachines of the Kirby type manufactured up to the present
time will not fall short of 120,000.
It is believed that six years is about the average life time
of machines in use, and that they average a yearly u.se of
about eighteen days, or one hundred and eight days use in
the life of the raachine. A saving of $12.00 per day over
the perforraance of the sarae work Viy hand, is, without doubt
raade, or $1,296.00 fur each machine, or $155,552.00 is saved
to the farming public and .the country over hard manual
labor, by the use of the Kirby machine alone. The magni
tude of these figures is surprising, but they fall far short of
the saving made by the later corabined harvester and binder
constructed by D. M. Osborne& Co. atthe present tirrie, which
has the capacity to cut and deliver in bundles, twenty acres
of grain daily, a saving of nearly double that made by the
ordinary harvester.
Machines manufactured at Auburn by D. M. Osborne &
Co., now find a market in nearly all of the grass and grain
growing portions of the habitable globe; and they are in use
as aids in gathering the harvests of the world every month
in the year. To-day, though raid-winter here, the click of
Auburn raanufactured machines is heard by our antipodes
in far ofl; Australia and South Araerica as they sweep down
and gather into bundles the ripened grain of those countries.
Mr. Kirby reraoved his family to Auburn in 1863, though
he for several years previous had spent the most of his time
in this city. Mr. Kirby in early life was without pecuniary
means, and for years it was an unceasing but uncomplaining

A,

!*

6&- INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS
struggle with poverty. With fixed purpose and a courage
that was equal to the occasion, untiring indu.stry marked his
efforts, and success was the result.
Mr. 0. H. Burdick, another inventor of Cayuga County,
has also for a long time been closei}' connected with the
reaping and mowing raachine industry of the County. To
him has been granted several patents for improveraents made
by hiin in harvesting raachinery. The first bears date June
7th, 1864, and was for an improvement in self-rakes; a rake
that was arranged to sweep in the arc of a circle across a
quadrant shaped y.ilatform, and hail a rising and falling mo
tion so that it could make the return movement without dis
turbing the accumulating grain on the platform. This rake
was operated in conjunction with a reel rotating on a hori
zontal axis. This was used on machines manufactured by
D. M. Osborne & Co. about two years, and was followed by a
further improvement by Mr. Burdick, which was a rake of
another type, known as the reel rake, and on which he
obtained a patent dated February 27, 1866. This latter, was
further improved and a patent obtained therefor, December
8, 1868. Tn this type of rakes, the operation of gathering
and bringing the grain to the cutters and laying it on the
platform, as well as discharging it therefrom in gavels suit
able for binding, is performed by the same organized mech
anism, instead of by separate devices, as with the first named
rake. It was extensively used on the Kirby machines and
on a machine organized expressly for its use and known as
the "Burdick Reaper." About 35,000 of these rakes have
been made and sold up to the present time.
Mr. Burdick also obtained a patent in ccmjunction with
Mr. 0. F. Daggett, for improvements in two-wheeled mow
ers, which has also been constructed by Messrs. D. M.
Osborne & Co. He has also obtained patents for fastenings
for foundryraen's flasks, photograph printer's frames, and for
a vegetable slicer.

v.-

uut^>.**

Fig, 56,— 'lhe " Burdicli Reaper,'

68 INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS
Mr. Orrin H. Burdick was born in Brookfield, Madison
County, N. Y., November 14, 1814. His parents moved
frora there to Cortland County, when he was but two years
old. His educational advantages were confined to the com
rnon school, and for a very liraited time only. When eight
years old he worked in a machine shop, and from that early
age was dependent on his own resources for a livelihood.
He mastered the machinist's trade, and in the spring of 1835,
when twenty-one years of age, he carae to Auburn and found
em]-)loyment in the shop of Burgess and Sprague, which stood
at that time on the same ground now occupied by the D. M.
Osboi-ne & Co. factory, on Mechanic Street. The firm was
engaged in manufacturing saddler's and harness maker's
tools. He remained in Auburn until 1841, when he moved
to Port Byron, and found employment for two years in the
machine shop of E. P. Eoss and Jonathan Seyraour, on raill
and job work ; after which, he found eraployment for three
years with David Anthony at Union Springs ou similar work.
In 1847, Mr. Burdick returned to Auburn and was em
ployed in constructing machinery and building the first car
pet looms for Barber's Carpet Factory, and personally started
all of thera when completed. Afterwards, he started a shop
and manufactured straw cutters for Watrous and Osborne on
contract, and subsequently for the firra of Osborne, Barker
& Baldwin, until Mr. D. M. Osborne bought out his partners
and assumed the manufacture himself, eraploying Mr. Bur
dick by the year, Mr. Burdick furnishing tools.
Subsequently, Mr. Burdick purchased a building on Water
Street, where he started a shop for general job work and
repairs, and in 1857, raanufactured on contract for Dean,
Mackin and Alden, the Wheeler machines, the first of that
type manufactured in Auburn. In the fall of that year, he
moved to the corner of Genesee and Mechanic Streets, where
he manufactured for Osborne & Holbrook, two huudred

Fig. 56.— Osborne Mower No. 7. Two-Wheeled Mower of the Burdick Type.

70 INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS.
Kirby machines, the first of that type made in this County.
From that time to the present date he has been identified
with the construction of the machines manufactured by D.
M. Osborne & Co., in Auburn. Mr. Burdick is a self-made
man, who with few advantages, by perseverance and' strict
attention to business has achieved success.
In this connection, it is proper to mention another Cayuga
Connty inventor, whose name is inseparably connected with
the reaping machine industry of this County. His patented
inventions relate to pitman connections for harvesters, and
whilst the inventor, the IIou. D. M. Osborne, may not claim
that his paiticular forte is invention, he posesses, it will be
admitted, in an eminent degree that business capacity as a
manufacturer which goes far towards making inventions a suc
cess. He was born in Harrison, Westchester County, N. Y.,
December 15, 1822. In early days was a clerk in a hard
ware store in New York City. Hecame to AuVjurn in 18^8,
and engaged in the manufacture of Straw cutters on the cor
ner of Genesee and Mechanic Streets, and subsequently, as I
have stated, in the manufacture of the Kirby machine in the
same building in which the oflice of D. M. Osborne & Co.
now is, in 1858 ; which has been enlarged from time to time
as the requirements of the constantly increasing business
demanded, until it has reached a raagnitude that he, at its
early inception, could scarcely have anticipated. Withthe
enterprise and business capacity of an Osborne, and the
inventive talent of a Kirby and Burdick united, success was
assured. John .A. Dodge, another inventor of Cayuga County, was
born in Dutchess County, in this State, and became a resident
of this County in 1833, with his father. Doctor David L.
Dodge, who settled at Union Springs in that 3'car, and for
many years was a practicing physician there. When a young
man, he clerked it for his brother-in law, George Mosher,

Fig. 57.— Early. Wheeler Machine,, . 1854-5.

FiG. 58. — Cutting Apparatus of First Wheeler Machine, 1853.

72 INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS
who kept a store at Poplar Eidge. He afterwards became a
Rail Road contractor, and subsequently a coal dealer in this
city, and in 1858, became the managing head of the firm of
Ross, Dodge and Pomeroy, which firm engaged in the man
ufacture of small agricultural tools and wheel-barrows in
Auburn Prison. They also engaged, (in connection with
Sheldon '& Co., who had a contract in the prison,) in the
manufacture of what was thon known as the Wheeler Com
bined Mower and Reaper. Subsequently they engaged in
the manufacture of the Ball machine; Sheldon & Co. taking
the Wheeler. Alter this Mr. Ross and Mr. Pomeroy retired,
and the Ball niachine was superseded by what was known as
the Dodge machine, and an incorporated company, know as
the Dodge and Stevenson Manufacturing Co., engaged quite
extensively in its manufacture.
On this machine Col. Dodge obtained seven patents indi
vidually, and two in connection with others. One with
George Perry of this city, and another with Wm. IT. Steven
son then residing here. These patents were principally im
provements relating to the reel rake, and were of considerable
importance. The improveraents consisted of devices which
governed the reeling and raking mechanism ; the switch and
roller controlling the arras being arranged outside of the
pivoted axis of the arras.
The company went into liquidation, and' in 1874, Beards
ley, Wheeler & Co. puichased, with the patterns and parts of
the raachine, a shop right under those patents. The other
interests in the rake patents were previously sold by thc
company to a certain firm of Reaper manufacturers for the
sura of seventy-five thousand dollars. Ool. Dodge is now a
resident of New York City and has a broker's office in Wall
Street. In the department of harvesting raachineiy inventions
the name of Cyrenus Wheeler, Ji-., appears. Thirty-nine

jj?.pAG£ DEL

Fig. 59.— Early Wheeler Machine. 1856.

74 INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS.
patents were, granted to him in that class, and several in other
classes to which it is not necessary to refer particularly.
His first patents, and perhaps the most important ones,
bear date December 5th, 1854, and February 6th, 1855.
Prior to this time, machines had been constructed with
rigid finger bars. These improveraents consisted in sup
porting the frarae work and gearing of the maciiine on two
wheels, and connecting the finger bar b}' hinges, and provid
ing levers for lifting and rocking it, so as to elevate or de
press the points of the cutters. In 1854, a platform, reel,
and raker's seat were added, thus making it a C(jmbined
machine. In the winter of 1855 a self rake was applied and
used in the harvest of 1856 quite successfully in standing
gi'ain. On these improvements patents were obtained, and
from that time onward successive patents were obtained for
other improvements made, to none of which particular refer
ence need be raade, except that of Febi'uary !lth, 186-i,
which was for a combination and arrangement of gearing,
rendering it more compact and better adapted to the purpose
of casing or boxing. The first machine was made at Poplar
Ridge, Cayuga County, in a shop carried on by Shourds and
Mosher, and the first trial was raade one raile south of there
on the farm of the inventor. The cutting apparatus used at
that time was an arrangement of pivoted shears. — See Fig.
58. :
The trial was made in grass soaked by recent rains, and
was satisfactory ; but the following season's use of the same
kind of cutters developed the fact that those cutters
were better adapted to wet than dry grass, and the
Hussey cutters and fingers were substituted in their
place. These machines continued to be manufactured at
Poplar Ridge up to 1860, reaching several hundred in
number annually, when the establishraent was moved to
Aurora and continued there up to 1866. After the harvest

Fig, 60,— Wheeler Machine of 1857,

Fig. 61.- Wheeler Machine of 1858-59.

76 INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS
of that season, it became consolidated as a stock cornpany,
with the Burtis and Beardsley, and Barber, Sheldon & Co.
firms, who were manufacturers of the same machine at
Auburn, under the narae and .style of the Cayuga Chief
Manufacturing Company, This company, in 1875, became
consolidated with D. M. Osborne & Co. as a stock company,
under the continued name of D. M. Osborne & Co., which
firm continues their manufacture at the present time.
In 1857, Orrin H. Burdick manufactured about one
hundred of these machines for Dean, Machachin & Alden.
In 1858, Ross, Dodge and Poraeroy, in connection with
Sheldon & Co., manufactured the sarae machines in the
prison, and Barber, Sheldon & Co., who succeeded Sheldon
& Co. in the prison, continued their raanufacture up to 1866.
Seyeral thousands of these machines were manufactured at
Alliance, Ohio, and in lesser numbers at other places.
Frorn 1854 up to the present time not less than 85,000
Wheeler machines have been manufactured in this country,
and the whole number of two-wheeled hinged finger-bar
raachines manufactured in this country, up to the present
tirae, will not fall short of 940,000. •
The several modifications of machines of the " Wheeler
Type," are very distinctly shown by the several and pre
ceding cuts. The'Carliest, or 1854 machine, was destroyed
before any picture of the same was obtained, but Fig. 57 is a
fair representation thereof with the exception of the cutting
apparatus, which was somewhat different, and is shown
clearly in Fig. 58.
Fig. 59 shows the machine as used for- mowing in 1856.
The sarae machine was also used for reaping, the platform
and reel not being shown in the illustration.
Fig. 60 is a modification of the same machine, as used in
1857 ; and Fig. 61 shows another modification as the
machine was used in the years of 1858 and 1859,

•is.

IbC^zM

*:^/'

</

»'

Fig. 68.-" Cayuga Chief " Mower in Operation. Wheeler Machine of 1860.

k/ -^: 1

"/

.1

1 I"

' W 'f

a- I

F,G.-65.-" Cayuga Chief " of 1861-as a Eeaper, having Overhanging Reel."

ss

•w^>-iniTr "11

Fig. 67.—" Cayuga Chief, Jr."— Mower of 1861,

~MTi'>t\

Fig. 68.— " Cayuga Chief, Jr.-— 6n the Road,

1861.

> ¦". ¦^.-^^''S^SS^ A>i\.v. ¦ ¦.<¦.'¦.'¦. .¦¦-.."

iiWEe

Fig. 69. — " Cayuya Chief " as a " Uropper"- l:jo4.

/=

\ /

^-^.''i

' I \\

'i / U 'l^ M.''

' ,,,,'^'^^'<A^V 'i,f.'L<r'T/^

^ii«ri;|wil

If ij / y

Fig 71 -¦ Caj iiga Chief ' of 1867, «ith the Johnson Self Rake

'i ttJv^'i

III „ III i'^^^^*-;\

illll

,1 JiIIIiIikI.,.

ifll

il ''iiiiiiiii'

Fig. 75.— Wheeler Mower No. 6, with Cover Kaised to Show Gearing.

Fig. 7u.-\Vheeler No. 6 Combined Mower iind Self-Rakin"

ReajxT-at Work in "Down Grain," 1873.

\i\

/"*¦

S^?S£^*^i

94 INVEKl'ORS AjSTD INVENTIONS
In 1860, the construction of the machine was changed by
substituting wrought- iron and steel for wood, and the
distinctive name of "Cayuga Chief," adopted for it. Fig.
62 represents the machine as a mower, and Fig. 68 shows
the finger bar folded and the machine on the road. This
system of folding the finger bar around by the side of the
machine, as shown, was adopted in the earlier machines and
was dovered by letters patent.
Fig. 64 represents the machine as used in 1860, for reaping.
Fig. 65 represents the same machine as used for reaping in
in 1861, an '' overhanging reel " being used. Fig. 66 repre
sents a sraaller sized " Cayuga Chief No. 2," as used for
reaping in the year of 1862.
Fig. 67 represents a sraall mower, called the "Cayuga
"Chief, Jr.," as used in 1862 ; and Fig. 68 shows the same
machine with the finger bar folded, and on the road.
Fig. 69 represents the " Cayuga Chief No. 1," in use as a
"Dropper" in 1864.
Fig. 70 shows a one-wheeled self-raking reaper as used in
1866, and known as the " Auburn Harvester."
Fig. 71 is the " No. 1, Cayuga Chief," as used in the har
vest of 1867, with the Johnston self-rake applied.
Fig. 72 represents the "Cayuga Chief," with seif-rake
attachment as used in 1868, two of the heads being what is
known as "rolling heads." The same machine is shown in
Fig. 73, with all "rolling head" rakes, and a different mod
ification of the driving chain as in use in 1869 and 1870.
Fig. 74 represents the Wheeler No. 6 as a mower in use
in 1872. Fig. 75 shows the same raachine with the protect
ing cover raised to exhibit the arrangement of the gearing.
Fig. 76 represents the No. 6 as a " Self Eaking Eeaper "
and as used in 1878. The same machine is shown in Fig.
77, with the finger bar and platforra folded up, for traveling
on the road, and Fig, 78 represents the "-Wheeler front-cut

OF OAYUGA COUNTY, N. Y. 95
Mower " of 1881, and known at the present time as the
"Osborne No. 2, Independent Mower."
In conclusion it may be stated that in preparing this arti
cle for the press, in the spring of 1882, it has been deemed
advisable to introduce cuts to illustrate the descriptive matter
and give a better understanding of the several subjects and
their various stages of progress to the present state of devel
opment.

SUPPLEMENT TO
THE INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS
OF CAYUGA COUNTY, N. Y."

Read before the Cayuga County Historical Society, at Auburn, N. Y.,
December 21st, 1880.
BY DAVID M. OSBORNE.

SUPPLEMENT TO "THE INVENTORS AND
INVENTIONS OF CAYUGA COUNTY."

PEESIDENT :— I have
one reason for regretting
that some other meraber of
this Society had not been
charged with the work of
writing a paper on "Inven
tors and Inventions of
Cayuga County," and that
reason is, that while no
man understands the sub
ject better or is better able to write such a paper than Mr.
Wheeler, his modesty is so sensitive that he cannot speak of
One inventor of Cayuga County with that freedom that
another might. I therefore wish, with your permission, to
add a short postscript to Mr. Wheeler's paper, and pay my
tribute ot respect to his inventive genius and to his industry
and perseverance.
Cyrenus Wheeler, Jr., was born March 21st, 1817, in the
town of Seekonk, Bristol Co., Mass., about three miles from
Providence, E I. When two years old his father moved to

loo SUPPLEMENT.
Fall Eiver, wliere he engaged in building cotton machinery
and manufacturing cotton cloth. At an early age Mr.
Wheeler worked in the machine shop and factory, beginning
in the lowest and working up to the highest departraent,
and at the age of 17 years was able to perform all the
different operations required to convert the raw material iuto
cloth. In 1835 he came with his father to this County, and
settled on a farm one mile south of .Poplar Eidge, where he
lived for 29 year.s. Mr. Wheeler was a pretty good farmer,
but his mind ran to machinery, and I judge from the com
plete workshops and the number of experimental machines
which can now be seen about the farm where he spent tho.se
29 years, that he was raore intent in the invention and im-
provera.ent of agricultural machinery than in hoeing his corn,
or weeding his onions; and the Seed planters. Straw cutters.
Horse Pitch Forks, and Mowing and Eeaping Machines on
his own farm testify to a busy life well spent in study and
experiment. He also experimented in his farming operations, and kept
careful records of his tests extending through many years.
But his most successful inventions were in the line of
Mowing and Eeaping Machines, and his crops on his farm
were largely used and often sacrificed in practical tests of his
inventions. Manufacturers were slow in acknowledging and the farmers
slow in applying his inventions, as has been the experience
with nearly, all inventors ; but his industry and perseverance ,
finally triumphed, and his success is attested by the fact that
there is scarcely a Mowing or Eeaping raachine made in the
world that does not carry on it some mark of Mr. Wheeler's
invention, and I am glad to say that as long as his patents
lived those inventions were acknowledged and royalties were
paid for their use.
To attain this success, Mr. Wheeler has had to live a very

SUPPLEMENT. 101
active life. He has told me that in the year 1863 he trav
eled in 18 States over 23,000 miles, including 40 trips between
Poplar Eidge, where he lived, and Auburn.
It is to such men as Mr. Wheeler, Mr. Kirby, Mr. -Bur
dick and Mr. Obed HusSey, who have devoted their lives to
the improvement of machinery, by drawing from the sinews
of iron and steel thc work which but for them would have
to be done by huraan labor, this country is largely indebted
for its progress in the mechanic arts and the imraense strides
it is raaking iu the development of its resources, and in tak
ing its place, as it surely is, .as the first nation of the world,
first in resources, tirst in wealth, flrst in culture, and first in
civilization. It is the product of the brains of such men that enabled us
to feed and maintain our armv in the Warof the Eebellion ;
the old men, woraen and children, gathering the harvests,
while the young raen were fighting the battles. It enables the
farmers of Cayuga County to do their own work, and send
their sons and daughters to people the boundless prairies of
Kansas, Nebraska and Dakota. It enables the almost count
less emigrants from the Old World to settle and make homes
in our forests. It enables one man to cut and bind twenty
acres of grain in a day, instead of two acres, (and this has
been done in your life-time, Mr. President.) It enables this
country to grow a yearly surplus of two hundred raillion
bushels of grain to send to the hungry people of Europe;
and it enables a citizen of Cayuga County to say, that we
have in this City (and I say this without egotisra, but with
the same honest pride which you or any one may say it), the
largest manufactory of Harvesting Machinery there is in the
world. When the future writer pn the subject of " Inventors and
Inventions of Cayuga County," or of the State .of New York,
shall read his paper before your Society, he will place high

102 SUPPLEMENT.
up in the list of names of men who have devoted their lives
to invention and to improvements of the age, and who have
done their country good and faithful service, the name of
Cyrenus Wheeler, Jr.; for his name is inseparably connected
with the history of harvesting machinery, and will remain
so as long as the ripening grain shall wave over our hills and
our valleys, and as long as this Republic remains true to its
gratitude for her sons who wori< for her glory.

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