The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century Part 15

In the early days of the Howe sewing machine it was denounced as a menace to the occupations of the thousands of men and women who worked in the clothing shops, and the struggles of the inventor against this opposition and discouragement form an interesting page of history. But it had come to stay and to grow. Some 7,000 United States patents attest the interest and ingenuity in this field, in the neighborhood of 100,000 persons make a living from the manufacture and sale of the machine, millions find profitable employment in its use, and from 700,000 to 800,000 machines are annually manufactured in the United States. The output of all countries is estimated to be from 1,200,000 to 1,300,000 annually.

The sewing machine has for its objective result only the simple and insignificant function of fastening one piece of fabric to another, but its influence upon civilization in ministering to the wants of the race has been so great as to cause it to be numbered with the epoch-making inventions of the age. It has created new industries. It has given useful employment to capital, has extended the lists of the wage earner, and increased his daily pay. It has clothed the naked, fed the hungry, and warded off the ravages of cold and death; but, best of all its tuneful accompaniment has lightened the heart and smoothed the pathway of life for Hood's weary working woman, to whose tired fingers and aching eyes it has brought the balm of much-needed rest.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE REAPER.

EARLY ENGLISH MACHINES--MACHINE OF PATRICK BELL--THE HUSSEY REAPER--MCCORMICK'S REAPER AND ITS GREAT SUCCESS--RIVALRY BETWEEN THE TWO AMERICAN REAPERS--SELF RAKERS--AUTOMATIC BINDERS--COMBINED STEAM REAPER AND THREs.h.i.+NG MACHINE--GREAT WHEAT FIELDS OF THE WEST--STATISTICS.

In the harvest scenes upon the tombs of ancient Thebes the thirsty reaper is depicted, with curved sickle in hand, alternately bending his back to the grain and refres.h.i.+ng himself at the skin bottle. For more than thirty centuries did man thus continue to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. Even to the present time the scythe, with its cradle of wooden fingers, is occasionally met with, and it is to the older generation a familiar suggestion of the sweat, toil, bustle and excitement of the old harvest time. But all this has been changed by the advent of the reaper, and ere long the grain cradle will hang on the walls of the museum as an ethnological specimen only.

The first reaper of which we find historical evidence is that described by Pliny in the first century of the Christian Era (A. D. 70). He says: "The mode of getting in the harvest varies considerably. In the vast domains of the province of Gaul a large hollow frame, armed with comb-like teeth, and supported on two wheels, is driven through the standing grain, the beasts being yoked behind it (in contrarium juncto), the result being that the ears are torn off and fall within the frame."

This crude machine has in late years been many times re-invented, and it finds a special application to-day for the gathering of clover seeds, and is called a "header."

The first attempt of modern times to devise a reaper was the English machine of Pitt, in 1786, which followed the principle of the old Gallic implement, in that it stripped the heads from the standing grain. The Pitt machine, however, had a revolving cylinder on which were rows of comb teeth, which tore off the heads of grain and discharged them into a receptacle. In 1799 Boyce, of England, invented the vertical shaft, with horizontally rotating cutters. In 1800 Mears devised a machine employing shears. In 1806 Gladstone devised a front-draft, side-cut machine, in which a curved segment-bar with fingers gathered the grain and held it while a horizontally revolving knife cut the same. In 1811 c.u.mming introduced the reel, and in 1814 Dobbs described a wheelbarrow arrangement of reaper in which he used the divider. In 1822 the important improvement of the reciprocating knife bar was made by Ogle, which became a characteristic feature of all subsequent successful reapers. It was drawn by horses in front. The cutter bar projected at the side. It had a reel to gather the grain to the cutter, and the grain platform was tilted to drop the gavel. In 1826 Rev. Patrick Bell, of Scotland, devised a reaper that had a movable vibrating cutter working like a series of shears, a reel, and a traveling ap.r.o.n, which carried off the grain to one side. This machine was pushed from behind, and, with a swath of five feet, cut an acre in an hour. It was, however, for some reason laid aside till 1851, when it was reorganized and put in service at the World's Fair in London in compet.i.tion with the American machines. All the earlier experiments in the development of the reaper were made in England. Grain raising was in its infancy in the United States, and near the end of the Eighteenth Century the Royal Agricultural Society of England had stimulated its own inventors by offering a prize for the production of a successful reaper, and continued thus to offer it for many years. There is no evidence, however, that the preceding machines attained any practical results, and it remained for the fertility of American genius to invent a practical reaper which satisfactorily performed its work, and continued to do so. Quite a number of patents for reapers were granted to American inventors in the early part of the century, among which may be mentioned that to Manning, of Plainfield, N. J., May 3, 1831, which embodied finger bars to hold the grain and a reciprocating cutter bar with spear-shaped blades.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 149.--PATENT OFFICE DRAWING, HUSSEY'S REAPER, DECEMBER 31, 1833.]

Cyrus H. McCormick, of Virginia, and Obed Hussey, of Maryland, were the men who brought the reaper to a condition of practical utility.

The commercial development of their machines was practically contemporaneous, and their respective claims for superiority had about an equal number of supporters among the farmers of that day. Hussey, originally of Cincinnati, but afterwards of Maryland, was the first to obtain a patent, which was granted December 31, 1833. An ill.u.s.tration of the patent drawing is given in Fig. 149. It embodied a reciprocating saw tooth cutter _f_ sliding within double guard fingers _e_. It had a front draft, side-cut, and a platform. The cutter was driven by a pitman from a crank shaft operated through gear wheels from the main drive wheels.

His specification provided for the locking or unlocking of the drive wheels; also for the hinging of the platform, and states that the operator who takes off the grain may ride on the machine.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 150.--PATENT OFFICE DRAWING, McCORMICK'S REAPER, JUNE 21, 1834.]

On June 21, 1834, Cyrus H. McCormick, of Virginia, obtained a patent on his reaper. In Fig. 150 appears an ill.u.s.tration of his patent drawing.

This had two features which were not found in the Hussey patent, viz., a reel on a horizontal axis above the cutter, and a divider L, at the outer end of the cutter, which divider projected in front of the cutter, and separated in advance the grain which was to be cut from that which was to be left standing. McCormick's machine had two cutters or knives, reciprocated by cranks in opposite directions to each other. This feature he afterward abandoned, adopting the single knife, described by him as an alternative. This machine was to be pushed ahead of the team, which was. .h.i.tched to the bar C of the tongue B in the rear, but provision was made for a front draft by a pair of shafts in front, shown in dotted lines. The curved dotted line beside the shafts indicated a bowed guard to press the standing grain away from the horse. The divider L had a cloth screen extending to the rear of the platform.

Neither Hussey nor McCormick appears at that time to have been cognizant of the prior state of the art, and as the patent law of 1836 had not yet been enacted, there was little or no examination as to novelty, and no interference proceedings as to priority of invention, and consequently their respective claims were drawn to much that was old, and probably much that would have been in conflict with each other under the present practice of the Patent Office. In the _Scientific American_, of December 16 and 23, 1854, in a most interesting series of articles on the reaper, the Hussey machine is fully described. The first public trial was on July 2, 1833, before the Hamilton County Agricultural Society, near Carthage, O., and its success was attested by nine witnesses. Great stress was laid by Mr. Hussey on the double finger bar, _i. e._, a finger bar having one member above and the other below the knife. The _Scientific American_ said the machine was a success from the first; that "in 1834 the machine was introduced into Illinois and New York, and in 1837 into Pennsylvania, and in 1838 Mr. Hussey moved from Ohio to Baltimore, Md., and continued to manufacture his reapers there up to the present time."

In 1836 Hussey was invited by the Maryland Agricultural Society for the Eastern Sh.o.r.e to exhibit his machine before them. On July 1 he did so, and made practical demonstration of its working to the society at Oxford, Talbot County, and again on July 12 at Easton. On the following Sat.u.r.day it was shown at Trappe, and it was afterwards used on the farm of Mr. Tench Tilghman, where 180 acres of wheat, oats and barley were cut with it. The report of the Board of Trustees of the society was an unqualified commendation of the practicability, efficiency and value of the machine, and a handsome pair of silver cups was awarded to the inventor. The report was signed by the following well-known residents of the Eastern Sh.o.r.e: Robert H. Goldsborough, Samuel Stevens, Samuel T.

Kennard, Robert Banning, Samuel Hambleton, Sr., Nichol Goldsborough, Ed.

N. Hambleton, James L. Chamberlain, Martin Goldsborough, Horatio L.

Edmonson, and Tench Tilghman.

Hussey made and sold his machine for years. In the _American Farmer_, of October, 1847, an agricultural journal printed at Baltimore, the advertis.e.m.e.nt of his machine appears with full price lists of the different sizes of machines, and also of an improvement in the manner of disposing of the grain, which was the invention of Mr. Tench Tilghman, and was adopted by Hussey on his reaper.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 151.--THE McCORMICK REAPER OF 1847.]

While Hussey was at work at his reaper, McCormick also was busily engaged with his, and he took his second patent January 31, 1845, No.

3,895. This related to the cutter bar, the divider, and reel post.

McCormick's next patent was dated October 23, 1847, No. 5,335, and in this the raker's seat was to be mounted on the platform as shown in Fig.

151. McCormick's last named patent also covered the arrangement of the gearing and crank in front of the drive wheel, so as to balance the weight of the raker. In the same year Hussey took out his patent of August 7, 1847, No. 5,227, for the open top and slotted finger guard, which is an important part of all successful cutter bars.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 152.--THE MANN HARVESTER OF 1849.]

The rivalry between the McCormick and Hussey machines continued for many years, and they were frequently in compet.i.tion both in America and England. The stimulus of this rivalry doubtless had much to do with the development and success of the reaper. Both Hussey and McCormick asked for extensions of their patents, but they failed to get them. In 1848, pending McCormick's extension proceedings, facts were introduced by him to show that his invention of the reaper antedated Hussey's, and that he had made his machine as early as 1831, and had used it then on the farm of Mr. John Steele, in Virginia. This claim to priority was supported by the publication of a description of the machine, and certificate of its use, in the _Union_, a newspaper published at Lexington, Va., September 28, 1833, and although no adjudication was ever made on this issue, this fact, together with Mr. McCormick's success in the contest in England in 1851, and his subsequent persistence and activity in improving, developing and introducing the reaper, has so distinguished him in this connection, that to-day his name is as commonly a.s.sociated with the reaper as is Fulton's with the steamboat, or that of Morse with the telegraph. To Mr. McCormick more than to anybody else the perfection of the reaper is due. In the spring of 1851 McCormick placed his reaper on exhibition at the World's Fair in London. Hussey also had his machine there, and they were the only ones represented. The machines were tested in the field, and astonished all who saw them operate. The Grand Council medal, which was one of four special medals awarded for marked epochs in progress, was given to McCormick, and the judges referred to the McCormick machine as being worth to the people of England "the whole cost of the exposition." It is only fair to state that Hussey was not present to direct the trial of his machine, and that in a subsequent trial another jury decided in his favor, and His Royal Highness, Prince Albert, ordered two of Hussey's machines in 1851--one for Windsor and the other for the Isle of Wight. The Duke of Marlborough also gave his personal testimonial to Mr. Hussey as to the excellence of his machine.

In 1855, at a compet.i.tive trial of reapers near Paris, three machines were entered. The American machine cut an acre of oats in twenty-two minutes, the English machine in sixty-six minutes, and the Algerian in seventy-two. In 1863, at the great International Exposition at Hamburg, the McCormick reaper again took the grand prize. While in Paris in 1878 Mr. McCormick was elected a member of the French Academy of Sciences as "having done more for the cause of agriculture than any living man." Mr.

McCormick continued to the end of his days, in 1884, to devote his entire energies to the development of the reaper, and well deserved the princely fortune that resulted from his indefatigable labors, a good portion of which fortune he spent during his life in the cause of education and acts of philanthropy. The inventory of his estate, filed in the Probate Court of Cook County, Ill., showed $10,000,000 as the reward of his genius and industry, and is an object lesson of the reward of merit for the ambitious youth of the Twentieth Century.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 153.--THE MARSH HARVESTER OF 1858.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 pa.s.sed up an inclined plane and acc.u.mulated 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 cla.s.s 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 a.s.sisted 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.

Sylva.n.u.s 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 a.s.sociated 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 acc.u.mulated, 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 156.--MODERN AUTOMATIC SELF-BINDING REAPER.]

This machine, under favorable conditions, with one driver, cuts twenty acres of wheat in a day, binds it, and carries the bound bundles into windrows, and with one shocker, performs the work of twenty men, and does it better, the saving in the waste of grain over hand labor being sufficient to pay for the twine used in binding. It is said that the self-binding reaper has reduced the cost of harvesting grain to less than half a cent a bushel.

It is estimated that more than 180,000 machines of the self-binding type are now produced yearly, the manufacturers in Chicago alone turning out more than three-fourths of this number. It is not possible to do justice to all the worthy workers in this great industry. Nearly 10,000 patents have been granted on reaping and mowing machines, and the conspicuous names of Whiteley, Wood, Atkins, Manny, Yost, and Ketchum, in addition to those already mentioned, are only a small part of the great army of inventors who have contributed to the development and perfection of the reaper.

In 1840 it is said there were but three reapers made. To-day the total number of self-binding harvesters, reapers and mowers in use is estimated to be two millions. The growth of this industry in the four earlier decades is as follows (the relatively small increase between 1860 and 1870 being accounted for by the Civil War):

1840. 1850. 1860. 1870. 1880.

Machines made 3 3,000 20,000 30,000 60,000

Immediately succeeding this period the automatic cord binder was put into use, and within five years the increase in output of reapers and mowers was very great. In 1885 more than 100,000 self-binding harvesters and 150,000 reapers and mowers were built and sold. In 1890 two manufacturing establishments in Chicago made more than 200,000 machines, half of which were self-binders and the other half reapers and mowers, and these two inst.i.tutions alone employed in their various branches of manufacturing and selling 10,000 employees. In 1895 the output of the largest of these manufacturing establishments was 60,000 self-binding harvesters, fitted with bundle carriers and trucks, 61,000 mowers, 10,000 corn harvesters, and 5,000 reapers, making 136,000 machines in all. In 1898 the output of this one factory for the year was 74,000 self-binding harvesters, 107,000 mowers, 9,000 corn harvesters, and 10,000 reapers, amounting to 200,000 machines. This output, together with 75,000 horse rakes, also made, averaged a complete machine for every forty seconds in the year, working ten hours a day. The estimated annual production of all factories in this cla.s.s of agricultural implements is 180,000 self-binding harvesters, 250,000 mowing machines, 18,000 corn harvesters, and 25,000 reapers.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 157.--STEAM HARVESTER AND THRESHER.

The wheat is headed, threshed, cleaned and sacked by this machine in one continuous operation.--Cutter, 26 feet wide; Capacity, 75 acres per day.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 158.--FIFTY HORSE POWER STEAM PLANTING COMBINATION.

Traction engine pulling sixteen 10-inch plows, four 6-foot harrows, and a drill.]

There were exported in the year 1880 about 800 self-binding harvesters, 2,000 reapers, and 1,000 mowers. In 1890 this was increased to 3,000 self-binding harvesters, 4,000 reapers, and 2,000 mowers. The total value of mowers and reapers exported in 1890 was $2,092,638. The growth subsequent to 1890 is well attested by the exports for 1899, which for mowers and reapers was $9,053,830, or more than four times what it was in 1890. These exported machines harvest the crops of the Argentine Republic, Paraguay, and Uruguay, of South America; carry their labor-saving values to Australia and New Zealand; traverse the wheat fields along the banks of the Red Sea and the Volga, and are used throughout all the continent of Europe.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 159.--A WESTERN HARVEST SCENE (LEFT SECTION OF VIEW).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 159.--A WESTERN HARVEST SCENE (RIGHT SECTION OF VIEW).]

With the self-binding harvester performing the work of twenty men, cutting and binding the grain, and arranging the bundles in windrows, it would seem that perfection in this art had been reached, but the tendency of the age is to do things on a constantly increasing scale, and so the latest developments in harvesters comprise a mammoth machine (Fig. 157) propelled across the grain fields by steam, and which by the same power cuts a swath from 26 to 28 feet wide, threshes it at once as it moves along, blows out the chaff, and puts the grain in bags at the rate of three bags per minute, each bag containing one hundred and fifteen pounds, and requiring two expert bag sewers to take the grain away from the spout, sew the bags, and dump them on the ground.

Seventy-five acres a day is its task. A companion piece to this machine is ill.u.s.trated in Fig. 158, which shows the same power utilized for planting. A powerful steam traction engine of fifty horse power hauls across the field a planting combination of sixteen ten-inch plows, four six-foot harrows and a seeding drill in the rear. Such great reaping machines only find useful application in the enormous wheat fields of California and the Pacific Coast States, where the dry climate permits the grain to ripen and dry sufficiently while standing in the field.

Moreover, only the heads of the grain are cut, the straw being left standing. Some conception of the enormous scale upon which grain is raised in the Western States may be gotten from the dimensions of the farms. It is said that Dr. Glenn's wheat farm comprises 45,000 acres; the Dalrymples', in North Dakota, 70,000; and Mr. Mitch.e.l.l, in the San Joaquin Valley, in California, has 90,000 acres. The Dalrymple farms in 1893 had 54,000 acres in wheat, and employed 283 self-binding reapers to harvest the crop. There is a single unbroken wheat field on the banks of the San Joaquin River, near the town of Clovis, in Madera County, California, which comprises 25,000 acres, or nearly forty square miles of wheat--a veritable sea of waving grain. The field is nearly square; each side is a little over six miles long. If its shape were changed to the width of one mile, the field would then be forty miles long. It has been said of the grain fields of the West, that the men and teams eat breakfast at one end of a furrow, take dinner in the middle of the row, and at night camp and sup at the end of the same row. With a field of such proportions it is not difficult to see how this may be true. The cultivation and garnering of crops from such vast areas can only be appreciated by comparisons. If it were one man's work to plow such a field, even with a double gang plow, cutting a furrow twenty-four inches wide, he would travel 105,600 miles, which would be equivalent to going around the world four times. If he plowed twenty miles a day, it would take 5,280 days. To harrow would require as long, and to plant would take about the same time, or about forty-three years altogether. A full lifetime would be required to plant the crop, and a second generation would be required to reap it. But great results require great agencies, and so great labor-saving machines, operated by armies of men, are brought into requisition, and with these the crop is both planted and reaped. A long procession of self-binding harvesters, following close one behind the other, makes quick work of it, and before the weather changes this great field is mowed, its crop garnered, and bread supplied for the hungry of all lands.