Cyrus McCormick

E. Stabler. A Brief Narrative of the Invention of Reaping Machines: And an Examination of the Claims for Priority of Invention. [Chicago]: Reprinted by the W.B. Conkey Company, 1897.

Cyrus McCormick (1809-1884): The Mechanical Reaper

Credited as “inventor” of the mechanical reaper, Cyrus McCormick based his patents on the achievements of others, including his family slave, Jo Anderson. McCormick’s real achievement, however, lay in founding of the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company. He set fixed prices “take it, or leave it” and guaranteed “15 acres a day.” In 1851 his reaper won a Gold Medal at London’s World’s Fair. The reaper liberated farm workers of back-breaking work and since fewer workers were needed for a harvest, the farm workers could join the work force in the burgeoning industrial revolution of the time.