of advertising and his
             willingness to stand behind his product were unusual for the time, but would be a
             standard of his later business strategy. Even with his guarantee, and the obvious benefits
             of the reaper, McCormick sold only seven reapers for the 1842 harvest.
             The reaper was such an advantage over the cradle and sickle, that orders began to
             flow in. The demand for the reaper quickly exceeded the capacity of the blacksmith shop
             at Walnut Grove. So in 1847, Cyrus McCormick moved to Chicago.
             McCormick took the reaper to the the Crystal Palace Exhibition in London in
             1851, where it won the Gold Medal. It was also the hit of exhibitions in Hamburg,
             Vienna and Paris. By 1856, McCormick was famous world-wide. His "Virginia Reaper"
             was a definite factor in the accelerating westward expa
             ...