Note that an automatic raker has been substituted for the man who rode on the machine and raked off the cut grain.
In this year, Mr. McCormick started for the western prairie, and in 1847 built his own factory in Chicago, thus starting the world’s greatest reaper works. This factory, known as “McCormick Works,” is still in progress. It covers today more than 120 acres in the heart of Chicago, and has an annual capacity of 375,000 machines of all types.
A Marsh Harvester as Built by the McCormick Company in 1874
Note the two men riding on the platform and binding up the grain as delivered to them by the elevator of the machine.
The third step in the development of the reaper was the addition to the machine of a seat for carrying the raker. The machine built in 1831 required that the raker walk by the side of the machine. In 1845 Mr. McCormick added the seat, patent for which was added in 1847. This seat which carried the raker enabled him while riding to rake the grain from the platform and deposit it in gavels on the ground. This type of reaper, patented in 1847, is the one taken by Cyrus H. McCormick to the first world’s fair held in London, England, in 1851, and about which the records of that exposition state “The McCormick reaper is the most valuable article contributed to this exposition, and for its originality and value and perfect work in the field it is awarded the council medal.”
This same reaper received the grand prize in Paris in 1855 and is the reaper which created so much surprise in the world’s fair in London that the comments made by the press demonstrated beyond a doubt that England had not as yet built a successful reaper. In 1858 the machine was further improved by substituting an automatic rake for the raker on the machine.
A McCormick Header Binder which Elevates the Grain into Wagons which Drive Alongside
Many other patents were granted from time to time until 1870, when the foundation features of all reapers had been invented and substantially perfected. The reaper is still used extensively, especially in foreign countries.