Obed Hussey

Inventor, born in Exeter, Maine, USA. He spent his life in the invention, improvement, and manufacture of machines for use in agriculture and light engineering. He achieved his greatest success with a reaping machine patented in 1833, the year before a very similar machine was patented by Cyrus McCormick. Whereas McCormick was prepared to adapt other people's ideas, Hussey was not, and he eventually lost the competition with McCormick, selling out in 1858.

Obed Hussey (1792 - August 4, 1860) was an American inventor, born to Quaker parents, of a farm machine called a reaper. He tested and patented a reaper in 1833, which placed him in fierce competition with Irish American inventor Cyrus McCormick. Both men made several patented innovations to the reaper, until Hussey was finally driven out of business.