Implements and Machines
Mechanical Reaper
Also Known As Reaper
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The horse-drawn machine that cut standing grain faster than a line of men with scythes, breaking the harvest labor bottleneck that had capped every farm's size since antiquity. Cyrus McCormick's 1831 machine and Obed Hussey's rival design opened the American grain belt; McCormick's company became the seed of International Harvester.
Facts
Introduced Year OriginA Gallic reaping machine is described by Pliny; the practical horse-drawn reaper dates to McCormick (1831, patented 1834) and Hussey (patented 1833), rival claims the sources carry as such 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Developed By
Why this is disputed. McCormick's claim is the famous one; Obed Hussey patented first (1833) and the priority dispute ran for decades. Recorded as debated, not smoothed.
Sources
1. Reaper (Wikipedia)
1. Reaper (Wikipedia)
Cyrus McCormick (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationEarly life and career sectionQuote, Early life and career section
Building on his father's years of development, Cyrus took up the project aided by Jo Anderson, an enslaved African-American man held on the McCormick plantation.
Baler (Wikipedia)
WikipediaAssociated With: Hay Baler, History sectionQuote, Associated With: Hay Baler, History section
In 1872, a reaper that used a knotter device to bundle and bind hay was invented by Charles Withington; this was commercialized in 1874 by Cyrus McCormick.
Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Developed By: Cyrus McCormick
When McCormick tried to renew his patent in 1848, the U.S. Patent Office noted that a similar machine had already been patented by Obed Hussey a few months earlier; McCormick later lost a court challenge to Hussey's patent.
A dissenting reading, from Obed HusseyCyrus McCormick (Wikipedia), Wikimedia Foundation
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