Detachable grain receiving platform. Limiting our inquiry to hand raking reapers it is proper to say that this was the culmination.
No reaper has ever been made since that time that did not have these elements arranged as he had combined them. In the face of historical facts, court decisions and patent office records, printer's ink will be wasted in vain in any attempts to win the laurels from the modest Quaker.
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| WHEAT HARVESTING IN THE GREAT NORTH-WEST. | COPYRIGHT 1900, BY A. W. MUMFORD, CHICAGO. | |
The necessities that called for these machines were the result of the high hopes of the pioneers of the West, who, finding natural garden spots of dimensions greater than the scope of the eye, plowed and sowed more than they could reap,—more than labor could there be found to reap. Naturally, then, the first practical machines of America were invented where the great Western fields, which, in their ripeness, inspired inventors.
On a day, during the harvest of 1833, a group of farmers and idlers were interested in the tests of a reaper about to be made. Mr. Hussey's machine was started, but some disarrangement caused delay. An incredulous young man, strong of arm, picked up the implement of one of the cradlers, and swung it with a broad sweep into the grain, declaring that that was a kind of a reaper to have. Mr. Hussey, though possessed of a quiet manner characteristic of the Quaker, felt stung and asked the bystanders to help him uphill with his machine. He then guided the machine down it on the run, and every straw was laid upon the receiving platform with the exactness in which it grew. The machine repaired demonstrated its ability to such an extent that others were ordered for the following harvest, and manufactured in a little shop on the farm of Judge Algernon Foster, near Cincinnati, Ohio.
For the harvest of 1834 two machines were made and sold, and from that time on have continued to be used up to the present day, where, as said in the so-called manual delivery reapers extensively used in Europe, they are found, substantially as constructed by him, having added thereto only the finishing touches applied by modern mechanics.
As a mowing machine slight improvements have been made; the only competitor for several years was one produced by Enoch Ambler, patented in 1834.
A single supporting and driving wheel was used in Ambler's, and a reciprocating cutting apparatus also, but the specific construction was not like that of Mr. Hussey. It came into considerable use, and may be considered the prototype of the single wheel reaping and mowing machines that found their way upon the market subsequent to 1840.
With the practical features proposed by a third of a hundred inventors carefully embodied in machines at the close of the first third of the century, came the practical reaping and mowing machine. Nearly one-half of the labor of the harvest field was dispensed with; the ring of the cradle blade, when whetting after the cutting of every round, soon ceased to be heard. The sound of the cutting device of the reaper and mower was not so musical, but may be likened to the chuckle of one in his ecstasy who has succeeded in his accomplishment. The burning sun scorched but half as many laborers as before. The labor of weary ones over the hot stove in the crude habitations on the farms was lessened. The harvest time became less dreaded; the scarcity of help became less felt, and the hours of labor were shortened. Homes became more cheerful, for the farmers' wives and daughters, before called from household duties into the burning sun, had now moments that could be devoted to planting the rose and vines.
Reflecting upon those early days, experiences such as can soon only be called by the artist, are brought to mind. In our imagination we see the troop of harvest hands, arisen from an early breakfast, taken after an hour's labor at chores, moving to the fields often before the sun has kissed the dew from the lilies that beckon them on the way, young women as well as young men; though with a hard day's labor before them, they are chatting as merrily as when gathering at school in the winter, when the labors on the farm are not so great. In those days few children who could walk knew leisure. The babe was often taken to the field and a still toddling youngster left in charge while the mother bound after the cradlers. It seems as if the expression "hungry as a hired man" must have originated on these western prairies, for in these early days five meals a day was the rule. About mid-forenoon two boys were spared from the field long enough to go for luncheon, soon to return with a well-filled basket and water jugs. The cloth was spread upon the stubble and a hasty but hearty meal spread. Perhaps a solitary tree shaded them. So far the harvest scene resembled the picnics we enjoy to-day. In the heat of the day an hour was taken for rest. At mid-afternoon another lunch was served.