The Reaper Revolution

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Few people changed American agriculture more than Cyrus McCormick. His invention, the McCormick 'Virginia' reaper, revolutionized farming by combining many steps involved in harvesting crops into one machine. McCormick's reaper could cut more wheat in a day than a half-dozen farmhands. The machine's speed increased crop yields, decreased the number of farmhands needed and helped turn the Midwest into the nation's breadbasket.

Beginning in 1831, 22-year-old Cyrus McCormick continued his father's failed quest to produce a mechanical reaper design. Cyrus' father, Robert McCormick, had extensively researched the mechanical reaper, but his design was never perfected. For three years, Cyrus toiled on a machine and finally secured a patent in 1834. Cyrus' horse-drawn reaper used back-and-forth-moving cutting blades and a revolving device to push cut grain onto the back of the machine.

Obed Hussey of Baltimore, Md., had patented a reaper of his own one year earlier, which by many accounts was the most improved over earlier devices and nearer in design to later successful models. Cyrus, however, won market supremacy for his patent by using better business tactics, eliminating Obed from the reaper market.

During the 1840s and 1850s, Cyrus continued to improve his reaper by building on Obed's formula and pushing for worldwide distribution. The noisy machine is said to have scared horses, but it made a farmer's job much easier. In 1847 and 1848, Cyrus added a seat for the raker, a cutting apparatus, reel divider and a platform. By 1849, another seat was added for the driver, and a sickle - made in sections - replaced the straight knife in 1851.

Cyrus realized an untapped market existed in the large, open fields in the Midwest. In 1847, he founded the McCormick Harvesting Co. in Chicago to meet the swelling demand for his reapers.

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