The Withington Binder Built by the McCormicks in 1876
This machine binds the grain with wire.
The self-binding harvester was borne on the shoulders of the Marsh harvester. Carpenter, Locke, Gordon, Appleby and every inventor who succeeded in any measure in binding grain, first did so by placing his binding attachment upon a Marsh harvester, taking the grain from a receptacle where it fell to another receptacle where it was bound. The first record of these attempts is a patent granted to J. E. Heath, of Warren, Ohio, in 1850. Watson, Renwick and Watson secured patents in 1851 and 1853, but their machines were very complicated and never more than experiments. From that time until 1865 many patents were granted, none of which may be considered successful.
In 1865 S. D. Locke of Janesville secured a patent which ultimately developed into the Withington wire binder first put out by McCormick in 1875.
The Withington machine was an improvement on the binding device patented by Locke in 1865. McCormick built 50,000 of these machines between 1877 and 1885. It was a simple mechanism which consisted mainly of two steel fingers that moved back and forth and twisted a wire band around each sheaf of grain.
Farmers did not take kindly to the wire binder. They said that wire would mix with the straw and kill their horses and cattle.
The Deering Twine Binder of 1879