From this time he went
on from triumph to triumph. He formulated an elaborate business
system. His machines were to be sold at a fixed price, payable in
installments if desired, with a guarantee of satisfaction. He set
up a system of agencies to give instruction or to supply spare
parts. Advertising, chiefly by exhibitions and contests at fairs
and other public gatherings, was another item of his programme.
All would have failed, of course, if he had not built good
machines, but he did build good machines, and was not daunted by
the Government's refusal in 1848 to renew his original patent. He
decided to make profits as a manufacturer rather than accept
royalties as an inventor.
McCormick had many competitors, and some of them were in the
field with improved devices ahead of him, but he always held his
own, either by buying up the patent for a real improvement, or
else by requiring his staff to invent something to do the same
work. Numerous new devices to improve the harvester were
patented, but the most important was an automatic attachment to
bind the sheaves with wire. This was patented in 1872, and
McCormick soon made it his own. The harvester seemed complete.
One man drove the team, and the machine cut the grain, bound it
in sheaves, and deposited them upon the ground.
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