FIG. 153.—THE MARSH HARVESTER OF 1858.
FIG. 154.—THE CHAMPION REAPER.
In the development of the reaper one of the first deficiencies to be supplied was automatic mechanism for taking the grain from the platform. In November, 1848, F. S. Pease took out patent No. 5,925 for a rake whose teeth projected up through slots in the platform, and moved back and forth to deposit the grain upon the ground. On June 19, 1849, J. J. & H. F. Mann took out patent No. 6,540 on a machine employing the principle of an endless band for carrying the cut grain to the side of the machine, where it passed up an inclined plane and accumulated in a receptacle to form a gavel, which was clumped upon the ground. This machine is shown in [Fig. 152]. On July 8, 1851, W. H. Seymour took out patent No. 8,212 for a self-raker, and this machine marks the beginning of the era of self-raking reapers, which for a quarter of a century in various modifications continued to be used, until displaced by subsequent improvements in binding devices. In 1853 the Sylla and Adams machine was brought out, the patents for which were bought by the Aultmans, and the Aultman and Miller, or “Buckeye” harvester, was manufactured thereunder. The general form of the modern harvester has followed along the lines of the Mann machine of 1849. The development began by replacing the gavel receptacle on the right of that machine ([Fig. 152]) with a platform on which stood men who rode on the machine as they bound the grain. An early and important example of a harvester of this class is given in the Marsh machine, patented August 15, 1858, No. 21,207, and shown in [Fig. 153]. To this type of machine the self-binding devices were subsequently applied, but before they materialized many other improvements in self-rakers were made and applied, among which may be mentioned the combined rake and reel of Owen Dorsey, of Maryland (1856), sweeping horizontally across the quadrantal platform; the McClintock Young revolving reel, carrying a rake; the Henderson rake (1860) used on the Wood machine; the Seiberling dropper (1861), which consisted of a slotted platform which moved to discharge the gavel; and the various improvements covered by Whiteley’s patents, which were embodied in the Champion reaper, of Springfield, O., and which is shown in [Fig. 154]. This machine had a combined rake and reel of the Dorsey type, whose arms moved over a circular inclined and stationary cam, and whose rakes had a horizontal sweep over the platform, and a vertical return over the wheels.
FIG. 155.—THE LOCKE WIRE BINDER OF 1873.
The next step, and, perhaps the most important one, in the development of the reaper, was in providing automatic devices for binding the gavels of grain into sheaves. John E. Heath, of Ohio, in patent No. 7,520, of July 22, 1850, was the pioneer, and he used cord. Watson, Renwick & Watson, in patent No. 8,083, of May 13, 1851, and C. A. McPhitridge, in patent No. 16,097, of November 18, 1856, quickly followed in the attempt to provide such a device, the former using cord and the latter wire. But the problem was not an easy one to solve. On November 16, 1858, W. Grey took out patent No. 22,074, for starting the binding mechanism by the weight of the bundle. Probably the first to complete a binding attachment that was partly automatic, and to attach it to a reaping machine, were H. M. & W. W. Burson, of Illinois. On June 26, 1860, and October 4, 1864, W. W. Burson patented a cord binder, and in 1863 one thousand machines were built. These machines, however, used wire, and being assisted in their operations by hand labor, were not truly automatic. On February 16, 1864, Jacob Behel, of Illinois, obtained a patent, No. 41,661, for a very important invention in binders. He showed and claimed for the first time the knotting bill, which loops and forms the knot, and the turning cord holder for retaining the end of the cord. On May 31, 1870, George H. Spaulding took out patent No. 103,673 for a binder which automatically regulated the bundles to a uniform size. Sylvanus D. Locke, of Wisconsin, was the next inventor who undertook to solve the problem. He took out patents No. 121,290, November 28, 1871, and No. 149,233, March 31, 1874, and many others. In 1873 he associated himself with Walter A. Wood, and they built and sold probably the first automatic self-binding harvester that was ever put upon the market. The Locke wire binder of 1873 is shown in [Fig. 155]. The use of wire, however, for binding grain, involved certain objections in that it required a special cutting tool for cutting the sheaves at the thresher, and it was not easy to remove the wire, and parts of it were likely to go through the thresher. Inventors accordingly concentrated their attention on the use of twine or cord. Marquis L. Gorham, of Illinois, built a successful twine binder, and had it at work in the harvest field in 1874. This machine, covered by patent No. 159,506, February 9, 1875, not only bound by cord, but produced bundles of the same size. The grain in this machine is delivered by the elevator of the harvester upon a platform, where it is seized by packers and carried forward into a second chamber, where it is compacted by the packers against a yielding trip, so that when sufficient grain is accumulated, the trip will yield and start the binding mechanism into operation. The ball of cord carried on the machine has one end threaded through the needle and fastened in a holder. The grain is forced against the cord by the packers, and when the binder starts the needle encircles the gavel, carrying the cord to a knotting bill, and the end is again seized by the rotating holder, the loop formed, the ends of the band severed, and the bound bundle is discharged from the machine. A gate, which has in the meantime shut off the flow of grain, is now drawn back, and the operation is repeated. On February 18, 1879, John F. Appleby took out a patent, No. 212,420, for an improvement on the Gorham binder. In [Fig. 156] is shown a modern automatic self-binding reaper which embodies the fundamental principles of McCormick and Hussey, the inclined elevator and platform shown by Marsh, and the automatic binding devices of Behel, Gorham and Appleby.