_Reproduced by permission of the Philadelphia Museums._]

[Ill.u.s.tration: STEAM HARVESTER AND THRESHER

The upper view shows side-hill harvesters drawn by teams of twenty-eight horses each. The machines cut the grain, and tie it up in bundles, which are dropped alongside. The machine in the lower view is self-propelling, cuts and threshes the grain, throwing out the straw, and places the grain in sacks ready for loading on the wagon.

_Reproduced by permission of the Philadelphia Museums._]

Early Attempts to Harvest with Machines.

The beginning of practical efforts in the direction of harvesting by wholly mechanical means may be said to date from the beginning of the last century, about the year 1800, although very little progress was made from that time up to the year 1831.

It is true that the Gauls made use of an instrument nearly two thousand years before, but this contrivance fell into disuse with the decline of the Gallic fields. Pliny describes this machine which was used early in the first century and which might be termed a stripping header.

Palladius, four centuries later, describes the same sort of machine.

This device of the Gauls had lance-shaped knives, or teeth with sharpened sides, projecting from a bar, like guard teeth, but set close together to form a sort of comb. As it was pushed forward, the stalks next the heads came between these sharp teeth and were cut or stripped off into a box attached to and behind the cutter bar and carried by two wheels. When the box was filled with heads, the machine was driven in and emptied. This is the way in which it is supposed that it was worked, and the ill.u.s.tration is the generally accepted representation of it as roughly reconstructed from the old Latin description of Pliny.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE MOWING MACHINE HAS REPLACED THE SCYTHE FOR CUTTING HAY, AND THE KEROSENE TRACTOR HAS REPLACED EXPENSIVE HORSE POWER FOR PULLING THE MOWERS

The tractor has 10 H. P. on the drawbar and is pulling three mowers, laying down a swath of hay 21 feet wide.]

Near the close of the past century, the subject of grain-reaping machines again began to claim the attention of inventors. In July, 1799, the first English patent was granted to Joseph Boyce. In 1806, Gladstone of England built and patented a machine which not only attempted to cut the grain, but also to deliver it in gavels to be bound. In 1807, Plucknett and Salmon both patented machines. In 1811, Smith and Kerr took out patents. In 1822, Henry Ogle, a schoolmaster of Rennington, a.s.sisted by Thomas and Joseph Brown, invented the so-called Ogle reaper.

The next, and last, reaper of this period was invented by Patrick Bell of Carmyllie, Scotland, in 1826.

Nearly all of these early reapers relied upon scythes or cutters with a rotary motion or vibrating shears. This method of cutting was essentially wrong, and none of the machines ever appeared to have gained or long retained the favor of the farmers. That these early attempts were all unsuccessful is evidenced by the fact that at the great World's Fair in London in 1851, the United Kingdom could not present a single reaping machine. English journals and writers of that period, without a single exception, spoke of the American reapers which were exhibited as "completely successful." For the real progress towards solving the problem of harvesting grain with machines we must turn to America.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE MCCORMICK REAPER OF 1845]

American invention in this line, so far as there is any record, began with the patent issued to Richard French and T. J. Hawkins of New Jersey, May 17, 1803. No reliable description of this machine seems to be extant. Five patents of no importance were issued between that time and 1822, when Bailey took out a patent. Cope and Cooper of Pennsylvania obtained a patent in 1826, and Manning obtained one in 1831.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A CORN BINDER CUTS THE HEAVIEST CORN WITH EASE]

Up to 1831, no successful and practical reaper had been developed. With all the patents taken out in England, and with those taken out in America from 1803 down to 1831, we might say that nothing had been accomplished toward perfecting a reaping machine which actually worked successfully.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A VIEW OF THE FIRST MCCORMICK REAPER OF 1831 AS USED IN THE FIELD]

The First Successful Reaper.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE MCCORMICK REAPER OF 1845 IN THE FIELD, WITH A SEAT ADDED FOR THE RAKER

Formerly the raker walked by the side of the machine.]

In 1831 came McCormick's reaper, the first practical machine of its kind ever taken into the field. It was crude at first, but improved from year to year. Although McCormick's reaper was not patented until 1834, one year after the patent granted to Obed Hussey for his reaper, young McCormick gave a public exhibition in Virginia three years before, in 1831. It was in the fall of that year when Cyrus McCormick hitched four horses to his machine, which had been built in the old blacksmith shop at Steel's Tavern, and drove into a field of late oats on the farm of John Steele, adjoining his father's. The reproduction of an old lithograph depicting this scene indicates the interest of the neighbors in this event. Although the United States had been established more than fifty years past, this was the first grain that had ever been cut by machinery. McCormick's machine continued to operate to the surprise of everyone and in less than half a day had reaped six acres of oats--as much as six men would have done by the old-fashioned method.

This was not the first attempt of a McCormick to solve the problem of harvesting wheat by machinery, for Robert McCormick, the father of Cyrus, had, himself, worked on a machine of this kind as far back as 1816. His father tried it again in 1831 and abandoned it, and in that same year the son Cyrus took up the work and started the world toward cheaper bread.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MCCORMICK REAPER OF 1858]

The first practical reaper taken into the field in 1831 embodied the essential parts of the reaper with which we are familiar. It had a platform for receiving the grain, a knife for cutting it, supported by stationary fingers over the edge, and a reel to gather it. The driver of the machine rode one of the horses, while the man who raked off the grain walked by the side of the machine.

Development of the Reaper.

The ten years following this first instance of a successful reaper were strenuous times indeed for Cyrus McCormick, for it was not until 1840 or 1841 that he was able to make his first sale. Twenty more were sold in 1843 and fifty in 1844.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE PROGRESSIVE FARMER OF TODAY DOES NOT LET HIS CORNSTALKS GO TO WASTE IN THE FIELD, BUT CUTS THEM WITH A CORN BINDER AND EITHER PUTS THEM INTO A SILO OR SHREDS THEM INTO STOVER FOR HIS HAY-LOFT

This picture shows the husker and shredder in operation with kerosene for power.]

During all these years from 1831 to 1844 Mr. McCormick was diligently at work changing, testing and experimenting. In 1845 he secured a second patent, which embodied many improvements--the princ.i.p.al ones referring to the cutting mechanism.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE MCCORMICK REAPER OF 1858 IN THE FIELD

Note that an automatic raker has been subst.i.tuted for the man who rode on the machine and raked off the cut grain.]

In this year, Mr. McCormick started for the western prairie, and in 1847 built his own factory in Chicago, thus starting the world's greatest reaper works. This factory, known as "McCormick Works," is still in progress. It covers today more than 120 acres in the heart of Chicago, and has an annual capacity of 375,000 machines of all types.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A MARSH HARVESTER AS BUILT BY THE MCCORMICK COMPANY IN 1874

Note the two men riding on the platform and binding up the grain as delivered to them by the elevator of the machine.]

The third step in the development of the reaper was the addition to the machine of a seat for carrying the raker. The machine built in 1831 required that the raker walk by the side of the machine. In 1845 Mr.

McCormick added the seat, patent for which was added in 1847. This seat which carried the raker enabled him while riding to rake the grain from the platform and deposit it in gavels on the ground. This type of reaper, patented in 1847, is the one taken by Cyrus H. McCormick to the first world's fair held in London, England, in 1851, and about which the records of that exposition state "The McCormick reaper is the most valuable article contributed to this exposition, and for its originality and value and perfect work in the field it is awarded the council medal."

This same reaper received the grand prize in Paris in 1855 and is the reaper which created so much surprise in the world's fair in London that the comments made by the press demonstrated beyond a doubt that England had not as yet built a successful reaper. In 1858 the machine was further improved by subst.i.tuting an automatic rake for the raker on the machine.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A MCCORMICK HEADER BINDER WHICH ELEVATES THE GRAIN INTO WAGONS WHICH DRIVE ALONGSIDE]

Many other patents were granted from time to time until 1870, when the foundation features of all reapers had been invented and substantially perfected. The reaper is still used extensively, especially in foreign countries.

The interest in this machine centers not in its development as used today, but in the fact that it led to the invention and perfection of the self-binder.

The prototype of all machines designed to bind the grain before being delivered to the ground is the Marsh harvester. It is the half-way mark, the child of the reaper and the parent of the self-binder. The original patent for this machine was granted August 17, 1858, to two farmer boys of De Kalb, Illinois, the Marsh brothers.

Previous to this time, attempts had been made to build harvesting machines which would bind the grain before delivered to the ground, but not one could be considered a success. At the time the Marsh harvester began seeking a place in the market, about 1860, reapers--hand-rakers, self-rakers, and droppers--held the trade substantially to the exclusion of any other kind of harvesting machine.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A COMBINED SWEEP RAKE AND STACKER

This ingenious machine is a great labor saver in the hay field. The hay can be gathered by any number of sweep rakes and dumped near the stacker, which will stack on any side and in any shape.]

The first successful Marsh harvester, built in 1858, was operated through the harvest of that year. It has never been changed materially in principle or form since. The theory of the inventors was that two men might bind the grain cut by the five-foot sickle in ordinary motion provided it could be delivered to them in the best possible position and condition for binding and if they could have perfect freedom of action.

They knew that the binders must have a free swing and open chance at the grain to enable them to handle it, so they arranged the elevated delivery, the receptacle, the tables and the platform for the man with these things in view.

The second Marsh harvester was built in Chicago in 1859. Improvements were made during the years 1861, 1862 and 1863. The manufacture of the Marsh harvester began in earnest at Plano in the fall of 1863 by Stewart and Marsh, twenty-five machines being put out in 1864.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NO MORE TIRESOME HAY PITCHING ON THIS FARM, WHERE HAY LOADERS ELEVATE THE HAY TO THE MEN ON THE WAGONS

The small kerosene tractor has taken the place of horses and is drawing two wagons at a time.]