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The McCormick reaper was a famous agricultural implement that sharply improved farm productivity in the 19th century. The reaper cut grain like wheat much faster than was possible with hand tools. It was made by the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company in Chicago. Cyrus Hall McCormick (1809 – 1884) was the American inventor and businessman who founded the company. It became part of the International Harvester Company in 1902.[1][2]

Invention of the reaper

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Cyrus McCormick and his company insisted he be credited as the single inventor of the mechanical reaper. He was, however, one of several blacksmiths who produced working models in the 1830s. His efforts built on more than two decades of tinkering by his father Robert McCormick Jr., with the aid of Jo Anderson, an enslaved African-American man held by the family.[3] Cyrus successfully developed a modern company, with manufacturing, international marketing, and a sales force to sell his reapers and other farm tools.

McCormick's reaper. For a 25 minute sound film that gives his version of the reaper story see online at YouTube
Further information: Reaper § Mechanical reaping

The McCormick Reaper was designed by Robert McCormick in Walnut Grove, Virginia. However, Robert became frustrated when he was unable to perfect his idea. His son Cyrus worked to complete the project. The son obtained the patent for "The McCormick Reaper" in 1834.[4]. [5]

The McCormick reaper of 1834 had several key elements:[6][7]

  • a main wheel frame
  • projected to the side a platform containing a cutter bar having fingers through which reciprocated a knife driven by a crank
  • upon the outer end of the platform was a divider projecting ahead of the platform to separate the grain to be cut from that to be left standing
  • a reel was positioned above the platform to hold the grain against the reciprocating knife to throw it back upon the platform
  • the machine was drawn by a team walking at the side of the grain.
  • The parts were all custom made by blacksmiths, and were not identical.

Many 19th century inventors claimed innovation in mechanical reapers. The various designs competed with each other, and were the subject of multiple lawsuits.[8] McCormick's chief rival was Obed Hussey who patented a reaper in 1833, the Hussey Reaper.[9] Made in Baltimore, Maryland, Hussey's design was a major improvement in reaping efficiency. The new reaper only required two horses working in a non-strenuous manner, a man to work the machine, and another man to drive. In addition, the Hussey Reaper left an even and clean surface after its use.[10]

Cyrus McCormick claimed that his reaper was actually invented in 1831, giving him the best claim to the general design of a working reaper. Over the next few decades the Hussey and McCormick reapers competed with each other in the marketplace, despite being quite similar. By the 1850s, the original patents of both Hussey and McCormick had expired and many other manufacturers put similar machines on the market.[11]

In 1861, the United States Patent and Trademark Office issued a ruling on the invention of the polarizing reaper design. It was determined that the profits made from reapers were in large part due to Obed Hussey. It was ruled that the heirs of Obed Hussey would be monetarily compensated for his hard work and innovation by those who had made money from the reaper. It was also ruled that McCormick's reaper patent would be renewed for another seven years.[9]

Competitive reapers

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Although the McCormick reaper was a revolutionary innovation for the harvesting of crops, it did not experience mainstream success and acceptance until at least 20 years after it was patented. This was because the McCormick reaper lacked a quality unique to Obed Hussey's reaper. Hussey's reaper used a sawlike cutter bar that cut stalks far more effectively than McCormick's. Only once Cyrus McCormick was able to acquire the rights to Hussey's cutter-bar mechanism (around 1850) did a truly revolutionary machine emerge.[12] Other factors in the gradual uptake of mechanized reaping included natural cultural conservatism among farmers (proven tradition versus new and unknown machinery); the poor state of many new farm fields, which were often littered with rocks, stumps, and areas of uneven soil, making the lifespan and operability of a reaping machine questionable; and some amount of fearful Luddism among farmers that the machine would take away jobs, most especially among hired manual labourers.[13]

Another strong competitor in the industry was the Manny Reaper by John Henry Manny and the companies that succeeded him. Even though McCormick has sometimes been simplistically credited as the [sole] "inventor" of the mechanical reaper, a more accurate statement is that he independently reinvented aspects of it, created a crucial original integration of enough aspects to make a successful whole, and benefited from the influence of more than two decades of work by his father, as well as the aid of Jo Anderson, a slave held by his family.[14]

Making and selling reapers reapers

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The McCormick's had a small blacksmith shop in Virginia that produced only a few machines. Cyrus McCormick contracted with other small shops to build and sell machines. Finally he moved his operation to Chicago in 1847, and did all his own manufacturing. Chicago was much closer to the wheat market, especially after the national railway system became centered there.[15]

Cyrus travelled widely to publicize the reaper with advertising and demonstrations, set up local offices to handle sales and repair work, and fought lawsuits. His younger brothers took charge in Chicago: Leander J. McCormick (1819–1900), a blacksmith, supervised manufacturing, and William Sanderson McCormick (1815–1865) handled bookkeeping. They all feuded a great deal. William died young and in 1880 Cyrus finally bought Leander out. He put his son Cyrus McCormick Jr. (1859–1936) in charge as they made the key decision to automate the factories with new machinery. Instead of highly-paid blacksmiths building one reaper at a time, the factory now used laborers to help the new machines turn out identical parts and make low-cost mass production possible. Indeed about nine of ten factory workers were common laborers paid $1.50 per day. In 1882 the factory produced 46,000 reapers.[16][17].

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ "Cyrus Hall McCormick". Wisconsin Historical Society. Archived from the original on September 5, 2007.
  2. ^ David A. Hounshell, From the American system to mass production, 1800--1932. (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984) esp. "The McCormick Reaper Works and American Manufacturing Technology in the Nineteenth Century" pp 153-188. online
  3. ^ "Jo Anderson". Richmond Times-Dispatch. 5 February 2013. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
  4. ^ U.S. patent X8277 Improvement in Machines for Reaping Small Grain: Cyrus H. McCormick, June 21, 1834
  5. ^ Daniel, Gross (August 1997). Forbes Greatest Business Stories of All Time (First ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons. p. 27. ISBN 978-0-471-19653-2.
  6. ^ Percy Wells Bidwell, and John Falconer, History of Agriculture in the Northern United States, 1620-1860 (1925) pp 286-290.
  7. ^ "Agricultural Machinery in the 1800s". Scientific American. 75 (4): 74–76. July 25, 1896. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican07251896-74.
  8. ^ McCormick 1931.
  9. ^ a b Follet L. Greeno, ed. (1912). Obed Hussey: Who, of All Inventors, Made Bread Cheap.
  10. ^ Colman, Gould P. (July 1968). "Innovation and Diffusion in Agriculture". Agricultural History. 42: 173–188.
  11. ^ Craig Canine, Dream Reaper: The Story of an Old-Fashioned Inventor in the High-Tech, High-Stakes World of Modern Agriculture. (1995) pp.29–45.
  12. ^ Olmstead, Alan L. (June 1975). "The Mechanization of Reaping and Mowing in American Agriculture". The Journal of Economic History. 35 (2): 327. doi:10.1017/s0022050700075082. S2CID 154366322.
  13. ^ Pripps, Robert N.; Morland, Andrew (photographer) (1993), Farmall Tractors: History of International McCormick-Deering Farmall Tractors, Farm Tractor Color History Series, Osceola, WI, USA: MBI, p. 17, ISBN 978-0-87938-763-1
  14. ^ "Jo Anderson". Richmond Times-Dispatch. 5 February 2013. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
  15. ^ William Cronon, Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West (1991) pp. 313–318.
  16. ^ Hounshell, From the American System to Mass Production pp. 156–183.
  17. ^ Timothy Messer-Kruse, "Strike or anarchist plot? The McCormick riot of 1886 reconsidered" Labor History, (2011) 52(4), 483–510 at p.489.

Further reading

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  • Aldrich, Lisa J. Cyrus McCormick and the mechanical reaper (2002), for middle schools; online
  • Ardrey, Robert. American Agricultural Implements: A Review of Invention and Development in the Agricultural Implement Industry of the United States (1894) online; a major comprehensive overview in 236 pages.
  • Benson, Howard William. "Organization and First Years of the International Harvester Company" (Thesis, The University of Chicago; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses,  1936. TM18363).
  • Bidwell, Percy and John Falconer. History of Agriculture in the Northern United States, 1620-1860 (Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1925) online, pp 281-305.
  • Canine, Craig. Dream Reaper: The Story of an Old-Fashioned Inventor in the High-Tech, High-Stakes World of Modern Agriculture (Knopf, 1995)
  • Casson, Herbert. Cyrus Hall McCormick: His Life and Work (1909) popular biography online.
  • Casson, Herbert. The Romance of the Reaper (1908) online, popular history.
  • Colman, Gould . "Innovation and Diffusion in Agrculture," Agricultural History (19680 42#3 pp.173-187. On early reaper adopters in upstate New York in 1850,
  • Cronon, William. Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West (W.W. Norton, 1991).
  • David, Paul A. "The mechanization of reaping in the ante-bellum Midwest" in: Issues in American economic history : Selected readings (Heath,1980) pp. 184–191.
  • David, Paul A., “The Landscape and the Machine: Technical Interrelatedness, Land Tenure and the Mechanization of the Corn Harvest in Victorian Britain,” in Donald N. McCloskey, ed., Essays on a Mature Economy: Britain after 1840 (Princeton University Press, 1971), pp. 145–205.
  • Fishwick, Marshall. "Sheaves of Golden Grain," American Heritage (Oct 1956) 7#6 pp.80-85. Popular look at how reaper was invented.
  • Garraty, Jihn A. Right Hand Man: The Life of George W. Perkins (1957) forming International Harvester in 1902.
  • Grady, Lee. "McCormick's Reaper at 100," Wisconsin Magazine of History (2001) 84#3 pp.10-20. Looks at the marketing of agricultural equipment 1831 to 1931.
  • Hirsch, Arthur. “Efforts of the Grange in the Middle West to Control the Price of Farm Machinery, 1870–1880.” Mississippi Valley Historical Review 15 (1929): 473–96.
  • Hounshell, David A. From the American system to mass production, 1800--1932. (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984) esp. "The McCormick Reaper Works and American Manufacturing Technology in the Nineteenth Century" pp 153-188. online
  • Hutchinson, William T. (1930). Cyrus Hall McCormick: Seed-Time, 1809–1856. Vol. 1. Century Company. OCLC 6991369.; a standard scholarly history.
  • Kline, Ronald. Consumers in the Country: Technology and Social Change in Rural America (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000).
  • Kramer, Helen. “Harvester and High Finance: Formation of the International Harvester Company.” Business History Review 38 (1964): 283–301. online
  • Lerner, Eugene. “Investment Uncertainty during the Civil War: A Note on the McCormick Brothers.” Journal of Economic History (1956) 16#1: 34–40.
  • McCormick III, Cyrus Hall. The Century of the Reaper (1933), popular history online
  • McClelland, Peter. Sowing Modernity: America’s First Agricultural Revolution (Cornell University Press, 1997); wide-ranging history of major farm tools in Europe and U.S.
  • Marsh, Barbara. A corporate tragedy : the agony of International Harvester Company (Doubleday, 1985) online
  • Olmstead, Alan and Paul W. Rhode, “Beyond the Threshold: An Analysis of the Characteristics and Behavior of Early Reaper Adopters.” Journal of Economic History 55#1 (1995): 27-57. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022050700040560
  • Ott, Daniel Peter. “Producing a Past: McCormick Harvester and the Producer Populists in the 1890s,” Agricultural History 88#1 (2014): 87–119. online
  • Ott, Daniel P. Harvesting History: McCormick's Reaper, Heritage Branding, and Historical Forgery (U of Nebraska Press, 2023).
  • Ozanne, Robert W. A century of labor-Management relations at McCormick and International Harvester (1967) online
  • Pickering, E. C. "The International Harvester Company in Russia: A Case Study of a Foreign corporation in Russia from the 1860s to the 1930s" (Thesis, Princeton University; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses,  1974. 7800256).
  • Pomfret, Richard. "The Mechanization of Reaping in Nineteenth-Century Ontario: A Case Study of the Pace and Causes of the Diffusion of Embodied Technical Change." Journal of Economic History (1976) 36#2 pp.399-415.
  • Queen, George S. "The McCormick Harvesting Machine Company in Russia, Russian Review (1964) 2#23 pp.164-181. Reaper had as major impact on Russian farming, 1858 to 1917.
  • Quick, Graeme R., and Wesley F. ; Buchele. Grain Harvesters (American Society of Agricultural Engineers, 1978)
  • Rikoon, J. Sanford. Threshing in the Midwest, 1820-1940: A Study of Traditional Culture and Technological Change (Indiana University Press, 1988). online
  • Rogin, Leo. The Introduction of Farm Machinery in Its Relation to the Productivity of Labor in the Agriculture of the United States during the Nineteenth Century (University of California Press, 1931).
  • Rosenberg, Chaim M. The International Harvester Company: A History of the Founding Families and Their Machines (McFarland, 2019). online, popular history with emphasis on family ties..
  • Rosenberg, Emily S. Spreading the American Dream: American Economic and Cultural Expansion, 1890–1945 (1982)
  • Steward, John, and Arthur Pound. The Reaper: A History of the Efforts of Those Who Justly May Be Said to Have Made Bread Cheap (New York: Greenberg, 1931), popular.
  • Thwaites, Reuben Gold. Cyrus Hall McCormick and the reaper (State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1909) online, brief scholarly history

Primary sources

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  • Dodge & Stevenson Manufacturing Co. Dodge's patent reaper & mower, and self-raker (1870), 40-page illustrated guide how to use the machine. online
  • Fitch, Charles H. "The Manufacture of Agricultural Implements" in "Report on the Manufactures of Interchangeable Mechanism" in 1880 Census: Volume 2. Report on the Manufactures of the United States (1881) pp. 70-85; detailed statistics of agricultural machines, by city and state for 1880 and previous censuses. online
  • Rhode, Robert T. Harvest Story Recollections of Old-Time Threshermen (Purdue UP, 2001), primary sources

Film

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  • "THE ROMANCE OF THE REAPER" (1937 INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER PROMO FILM ), 25 minutes, black and white; filmed in Virginia. online
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