Cyrus McCormick was born in 1809 at Willow Grove, the McCormick family
farm near Steeles Tavern, Va. The farm operated a sawmill, a cider mill, a distillery, two
grain mills and a smokehouse. Cyrus McCormick's father, Robert, had worked on a
horse-drawn reaper off and on from 1815, but was never able to get his designs to work
In 1831, Robert McCormick abandoned his efforts to perfect his reaper. Working
in the farm's blacksmith shop, his 22-year-old son, Cyrus, took up the challenge of the
reaper. He took his father's design as a starting point and added several new features.
Within six weeks, they had built a successful demonstration model of the reaper and
conducted a public trial of the machine at Walnut Grove.
The reaper used a reciprocating knife, much like today's sickle bar mower, to cut
the grain. Metal fingers guided the stalks into the knife and a revolving reel pushed the
grain into the knife for a clean cut. A master wheel which carried most of the weight of
the machine rolled on the ground and drove the knife through gears and linkages. The cut
grain fell onto a platform behind the knife where it was raked off into windrows or piles.
A horse pulled the machine through the field. With McCormick's reaper, two people
could cut as much grain in one day as four or five men with cradles, or a dozen with
After the successful trial in 1831, McCormick continued to improve his design,
and applied for a patent in 1834. By 1841, he was finally satisfied with his machine, and
began offering the reaper for sale. Sales were slow at first; farmers had been harvesting
wheat for generations with hand-tools and were skeptical of this new-fangled invention.
McCormick advertised his machine with a guarantee. If the reaper was not as strong and
durable as he claimed, and would not cut 15 acres a day and save one bushel of wheat per
acre, the reaper could be returned for a refund. McCormick's use ...