![]() He did sell one in 1840, but none for 1841. In 1839 McCormick started doing more public demonstrations of the reaper, but local farmers still thought the machine was unreliable. The panic of 1837 almost caused the family to go into bankruptcy when a partner pulled out. The McCormick family worked together on starting a metal smelting business. The young McCormick was granted a patent on the reaper on June 21, 1834.īecause the machine could not handle varying conditions, none were sold. ![]() He claimed to have developed a final version of the reaper in 18 months. The McCormick design was pulled by horses and cut the grain to one side of the team.Ĭyrus McCormick held one of his first demonstrations of mechanical reaping at the nearby village of Steeles Tavern, Virginia in 1831. He worked for 28 years on a horse-drawn mechanical reaper to harvest grain however, he was never able to reproduce a reliable version.Ĭyrus took up the project.He was aided by Jo Anderson, an enslaved African American on the McCormick plantation at the time.A few machines based on a design of Patrick Bell of Scotland (which had not been patented) were available in the United States in these years. As Cyrus' father saw the potential of the design for a mechanical reaper, he applied for a patent to claim it as his own invention. ![]() He was the eldest of eight children born to inventor Robert McCormick, Jr. ![]() Cyrus Hall McCormick was an Inventor and founder of the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, which became part of International Harvester Company in 1902.From the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, he and many members of his family became prominent residents of Chicago.Īlthough McCormick is credited as the "inventor" of the mechanical reaper, he based his work on that of many others, including Roman, Scottish and American men, more than two decades of work by his father, and the aid of Jo Anderson, a slave held by his family.Cyrus McCormick filed patents for the invention, and his achievements were chiefly in the development of a company, marketing and sales force to market his products.Ĭyrus McCormick was born Februin the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. ![]()
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