American Sickles
Early American pioneers had only a sickle or scythe to cut their grain. Mostly, they were very simple tools. An addition that looked like wooden fingers and kept the grain flat until the end of the cutting swing, was added perhaps as early as 1803.
Mechanical Reapers
The first attempts to build a machine to cut grain were made in England and Scotland, several of them in the eighteenth century. The first recorded English patent for a mechanical reaper was issued to Joseph Boyce in 1799. In 1822, school teacher Henry Ogle, invented a mechanical reaper, but the opposition of the laborers of the vicinity, who feared loss of employment, prevented Ogle from making any further innovations.In 1826, Patrick Bell, a Presbyterian minister, who had been moved by the hard work of the harvesters on his father's farm in Argyllshire, made an attempt to lighten their labor. His reaper was pushed by horses; a reel brought the grain against blades which opened and closed like scissors, and a traveling canvas apron deposited the grain at one side. The inventor received a prize from the Highland and Agricultural Society of Edinburgh, and pictures and full descriptions of his invention were published. Several models of this reaper were built in Great Britain, and it is said that four came to the United States, however, Bell's machine was never generally adopted.
Three Inventors of American Reapers
Soon afterward three men patented reapers in the United States: William Manning, Plainfield, New Jersey, 1831; Obed Hussey, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1833; and Cyrus Hall McCormick, Staunton, Virginia, 1834. Just how much they owed to Patrick Bell cannot be known, but it is probable that all had heard of his design if they had not seen his drawings or the machine itself.The first of these inventors, Manning of New Jersey, never made a machine other than his model. More persistent was Obed Hussey of Cincinnati, who soon moved to Baltimore to fight out the issue with Cyrus McCormick. Hussey was an excellent mechanic. He patented several improvements to his machine and received high praise for the efficiency of the work. But he was soon outstripped in the race because he was weak in the essential qualities which made Cyrus McCormick the greatest figure in the world of agricultural machinery.
Cyrus McCormick
Cyrus McCormick was more than a mechanic; he was a man of vision; and he had the enthusiasm of a crusader and superb genius for business organization and advertisement.Though Cyrus McCormick offered reapers for sale in 1834, he sold none in that year and for six years afterwards. He sold two in 1840, seven in 1842, fifty in 1844. The reaper did not work well in the hills of Virginia, and farmers hesitated to buy anything that needed the attention of a skilled mechanic.
However, things changed after Cyrus McCormick made a trip through the Mid West. In the rolling prairies, with mile after mile of rich soil with few trees or stones, McCormick saw his chance. Obed Hussey had moved East. Cyrus McCormick did the opposite; he moved West, to Chicago, in 1847. Chicago was then a town of hardly ten thousand, but Cyrus McCormick built a factory there, and manufactured five hundred machines in time for the harvest of 1848.
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 was done chiefly by exhibitions and contests at fairs and other public gatherings.
He was not daunted by the Government's refusal in 1848 to renew his original patent. He successfully decided to make profits as a manufacturer rather than accept royalties as an inventor.
