Cyrus Hall Mccormick

The mechanical reaper.   A time-saving invention which allowed farmers


  to more than double their crop size while at the same time spurring


  other innovations in farm machinery.   This reaper, which combined all


  the steps that earlier harvesting machines had performed separately, was


  the brilliant innovation of a man, a man named Cyrus Hall McCormick.


  Born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, Cyrus was son to a man who's


  imagination also boggled with new inventions.   As a child, Cyrus


  experimented with different tools in hopes of inventing something which


  would simplify his father's job.   Finally, in 1831, he built his first


  reaper.   Succeeding where his father had failed, Cyrus made some


  adjustments to his machine before patenting his invention in 1834.   At


  around the same time (1833), a man by the name of Obed Hussey announced


  a the construction of a reaper of his own.  


  The year was 1840, and by this time, McCormick had started to


  manufacture his creation and sold it for the first time in Virginia.


  The reaper's marketing did very well, and it's sales had expanded to


  other parts of the United States by 1844.   Because of it's efficiency,


  the horse-drawn reaper allowed farmers to harvest five times the regular


  2 acre per day amount that skilled workers used to harvest.


  In 1847, the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company was moved to Chicago.


  Location, ease of distribution, and reputation were all factors which


  convinced McCormick that Chicago was the place for him.   "Centrally


  located in the Midwest, he used the Great Lakes to transport reapers to


  the East, and the Mississippi River to transport to the South."*   What


  more, as industries grew in the Windy City, Chicago soon turned into a


  major railroad central in the 1850's.   This added to the...