Hussey

York, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. His ma-
chines sold well and he established a factory in
Baltimore- Six months after Hussey obtained
his first patent, Cyrus McCormick [g.z'.] pat-
ented a reaper and began to manufacture it. A
keen, at times bitter, rivalry developed between
the two men, which continued for many years
both in the United States and in England, and
probably had much to do with the subsequent de-
velopment of the reaper. Hussey, for example,
took out a second patent, No. 5227 (Aug. 7,
1847) for the open top and slotted finger bar,
which is an important part of all successful cut-
ter bars; and McCormick, a third patent, for
gearing changes and raker's seat Both Hussey
and McCormick asked for extensions to their
patents but failed to get them. They exhibited
their machines at the London Exhibition in
1851, and subsequently entered into competitive
trials in England, both men receiving high hon-
ors. The successes of these two pioneers nat-
urally spurred others to devise improvements
in the reaper, which McCormick was quick to
acquire, but which Hussey, with his character-
istic obstinacy, refused to adopt. As a result, his
business gradually declined and he sold out in
1858. He then turned to the invention of a steam
plow, on which he was at work when, during
a visit to New England, he fell beneath a railway
train and was killed. He was survived by his
wife, Eunice B. (Starbuck) Hussey, and a
daughter.

[E. W. Byrn, The Progress of Invention in the Nine-
teenth Century (1900); W. B. Kaempffcrt, A Popular
Hist, of Am. Invention (iQ24); F. L. Greeno, Obed
Hussey (1912); Farm Implement News (Chicago),
Jan. 1886; Edward Stabler, A Brief Narrative of the
Invention of Reaping Machines (1854), and A Review
of the Pamphlet of W, N. P. Fitzgerald (1855) ; R. B.
Swift, Who Invented the Reaperf (1897); M. F. Mil-
ler, The Evolution of Reaping Machines (1902) ; Cyrus
McConnick, The Century of the Reaper (1931); the
Sun (Baltimore), Aug. 6, 1860.] C.W.M.

HUSSEY, WILLIAM JOSEPH (Aug. 10,
rS62-Oct 28,1926), astronomer, was born on a
farm in Mendon, Ohio. He was the son of John
Milton and Mary Catherine (Sevems) Hussey.
Funds could not be spared from the proceeds of
the farm for a college education, but he taught
school and ran a printing press, and finally en-
tered the University of Michigan in 1882. By
the end of his sophomore year his savings were
all used tip and he took a position with a party of
raSroad surveyors. Reentering college, he grad-
uated in 1889 *n cwl engineering, and after a
part of a year in the Nautical Almanac Office at
Washington, returned to Michigan as an instruc-
tor. During 1891-92 he was acting director of
the observatory. He was then called to Leland

Hussey

Stanford Junior University as assistant profes-
sor of astronomy and was soon promoted to a
full professorship.

While at Stanford he was often a volunteer
assistant at the Lick Observatory, and in 1896
he accepted a position as astronomer there. His
chief interest lay in micrometrical observation;
he was a master of the technique of exact meas-
urement and his early observations of comets,
satellites, and double stars at once established
his reputation as an observer. In the years
1898-1900 he remeasured the double stars dis-
covered by Otto Struve. All previous measures
of these stars were collected and discussed, and
the results brought together in Volume V (1901)
of the Publications of the Lick Observatory. In
July 1899 he joined R. G. Aitken in a scrutiny
of all stars brighter than the ninth magnitude
between the north pole and -22° declination.
Hussey's share of the discoveries of double stars
numbered 1,327. In 1905 he was called to the
directorship of the observatory in Ann Arbor.
Here he developed and carried out plans for the
extension of the observatory, including build-
ings, equipment, and an instrument shop in
which was built the mounting for the 37j£-inch
reflector.

With astronomical research and an enviable
reputation for astronomical instruction well es-
tablished at Michigan, he was ready to turn to
the realization of his long cherished plan to carry
the search for double stars into the southern
hemisphere, a search he had begun in 1903, when
he had studied the "seeing" in southern Califor-
nia, Arizona, and Australia for the Carnegie In-
stitution of Washington. R. P. Lamont of Chi-
cago, a college classmate, stood ready to finance
the project. Drawings for a large telescope
were made in 1910 and the lenses ordered, but
there were serious delays in obtaining the glass
disks. Finally, in 1922, an opportunity came to
purchase 27-inch disks in Jena, and the lenses
were finished in 1925. In the meantime, how-
ever, much else had happened. In 1911 Hussey
was offered the directorship of the observatory
at La Plata, in the Argentine Republic. Ar-
rangements were soon made whereby he should
divide his time about equally between the ob-
servatories at Ann Arbor and La Plata. On his
arrival in South America in July 1911 he en-
countered many unexpected difficulties and dis-
couragements, but when he left again in Janu-
ary 1912 the reorganization was well under
way, plans had been matured and initiated, and
nearly one hundred more southern double stars
discovered. This arrangement continued for six
years. The staff was increased, an observatory

432