Mechanical reaper
Segadora mecánica
- Date
- 1831 (patente 1834) · confidence high
- Place
- Steele's Tavern (Walnut Grove), Virginia, United States
- Credited to
- Cyrus McCormick (with Jo Anderson, an enslaved man); Obed Hussey (1833 patent); Patrick Bell (Scotland, 1828)
- People
- 👤 Cyrus McCormick1809–1884👤 Obed Hussey1792–1860👤 Patrick Bell1799–1869
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A horse-drawn machine that cut grain with a reciprocating cutter bar and a reel. It multiplied fivefold the area a man could harvest and freed up agricultural labour.
Bell (Scotland, 1828) and Hussey (Maryland, 1833) preceded or competed with McCormick, whose patent dates from 1834; his advantage lay in serial manufacture and credit sales.
What it led to
- Agricultural settlement of the Great Plains and wheat exports
- The McCormick factory in Chicago (1847) and Chicago as an agro-industrial capital
- Rural exodus towards the factories
- The reaper-binder (Appleby, 1878) and the combine harvester
Built on
- Patrick Bell's reaper (1828)
- Scythe and sickle
- Cheap wrought iron
Made possible
- Combine harvester1836
- Reaper-binder
- International Harvester