Inventor: Cyrus McCormick

One of the most effective innovations in agricultural technology has been the mechanical reaper.  It was one of the key tools that led to the rise of mechanized farming.  This invention not only reduced of hard labor of farmers, but it also sped up the harvesting process.  He finished the plan that his father originally had for creating a mechanized reaper.  The reaper was horse drawn and was able to harvest wheat twice as fast as previous methods which involved cutting the crops using a scythe, threshing them, and binding them together manually.  The first reaper was able to cut the grain and place it on a platform, from where it would be harvested further.  Eventually, modifications to the reaper allowed it to perform all of the aforementioned tasks by itself.  Since the amount of wheat produced were limited by the amount that could be harvested each year, the reaper greatly increased the output of farms.  The reapers were a huge success domestically as well as internationally after McCormick began mass producing them.  The invention of the reaper as well as other mechanized farming tools allowed Americans to shift their attention from agriculture to other industries, which helped lead to the industrial revolution.

*Pictures from <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/chicago/sfeature/sf_made_02.html>

SOURCES:

Bellis, Mary. “Cyrus McCormick – The Reaper”, 17 Jan 2004, <http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blmccormick.htm>

• This site provides information on Cyrus McCormick and the reaper

Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  “Mechanical Reaper”, Mar. 2000 <http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/mccormick.html>

• This website has great a lot of information on the life of Cyrus McCormick and the development of the reaper