Who is Cyrus McCormick?

Cyrus McCormick invented the harvesting machine that made harvesting much more accessible.

Cyrus McCormick was born on a farm in Virginia in 1809. As a young man, he used to invent small tools that made farm work much easier. He built the reaper in 1831 and received the patent for it in 1834, and it went on sale in 1840.

The Reaper

The reaper could harvest ten acres of land at the same time it would take a farmer to harvest 2 or 3 acres without the reaper.

The reaper is a machine used to harvest grain. It consists of a straight blade and wheels linked by gears. The stalks of grain were cut by the bland and fell back into the back of the reaper where they were ranked to the ground. Then the grain bundled up and was gathered.

Many other farmers improved the machine so that fewer people were needed for the harvest since it needed between eight to ten workers. The improvements of other farmers led to the modern way of farming that is used today.