Cyrus Hall McCormick :: Biography Biographies

Cyrus Hall McCormickThe mechanical reaper. A clock-saving invention which allowed farmers to to a greater extent than double their crop size while at the same time spurring other(a) innovations in farm machinery. This reaper, which combined all the move that earlier harvesting machines had performed separately, was the brilliant innovation of a human beings, a man named Cyrus Hall McCormick. Born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, Cyrus was son to a man whos conceit also boggled with new inventions. As a child, Cyrus experimented with different tools in hopes of inventing something which would change his fathers job. Finally, in 1831, he built his first reaper. Succeeding where his father had failed, Cyrus do some adjustments to his machine before patenting his invention in 1834. At near 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 fashion his creation an d sold it for the first time in Virginia. The reapers marketing did precise well, and its sales had expanded to other parts of the United States by 1844. Because of its efficiency, the horse-drawn reaper allowed farmers to harvest five times the regular 2 acre per twenty-four hour period amount that skilled workers used to harvest. In 1847, the McCormick Harvesting Machine caller-out was moved to Chicago. Location, ease of dispersal, and reputation were all factors which convinced McCormick that Chicago was the post for him. Centrally located in the Midwest, he used the Great Lakes to witch reapers to the East, and the Mississippi River to transport to the South.* What more, as industries grew in the Windy City, Chicago currently turned into a major railroad central in the 1850s. This added to the distribution potential which McCormick needed to ship his reapers out to other parts of the US. The attach tos succeeder thrived under the name McCormick Harvesting Machine Compan y until McCormicks death in 1884. By this time, McCormicks company had grown to become one of greatest industrial establishments in the United States. Chicago newspapers were bragging about his success and other companies awed at the pace of development. Shortly after his death, the company had a face-lift. Its name changed to the International Harvester, and sales slowed down from its initial boom. In 1907, the company produced the Auto Buggy. With this machine, farmers were able to haul their goods to the markets.