Horse Drawn Mechanical Reaper

History Behind Horse Drawn Mechanical Reaper

Virginia,1831

Made By Cyrus Mc Cormic

Made by Cyrus Hall McCormick The mechanical reaper was made in 1831. At that time, much labor had to be done to harvest crops. No one liked to do that much work to get a small amount of grain to harvest with. The population increased and there was a whole demand on the food source. Meeting the demand would be almost impossible without a mechanical mechanism.

As a kid, He grew up on a farm, he had to do hard agriculture to sustain his family. He was good at engineering and great at farming. Taking 18 months, he had lots of struggle building the reaper. At that time, there were a high demand on slaves. Making this reaper increased the slave intake. His dad started the project, but he took over it shortly. At the age of 49 he married a woman named Nancy. He died at the age of 75.

HOW DOES THE HORSE DRAWN MECHANICAL REAPER WORK?

Parts that hold the reaper

How It Works.

There was a whole mechanism with gears to connect the pieces. The strait blade was connected to the drive wheel. When the drive wheel turned, then the blade rubbed back and forth against the wheat. The grain stalks fell onto a plate and then was collected with a rake, by a worker. The horse makes the driver wheel turn and starts the truing motion of the blade holders.

How it looks and the parts.

THese are the different types of blades that connect to the knifes holder. These bades are sharp and when the vibrate, they can cut very efficiantly. There are guards on the knifes to protect you and the horses.

THis is where the person sits to drive horse.

How the Horse Drawn Mechanical Reaper Affected the world

The horse drawn mechanical reaper influenced many other innovations that eventually helped the world. Even though compared to today, the reaper is very slow, it inspired the other things that today make wheat availible all over the world.

How it impacted.

The Horse Drawn Mechanical Reaper made cutting wheat way more efficient and easier. With the machine, 1 person could do 5 people’s job in 1 day. At that time, during the industrial revolution, population grew majorly. There was a high demand for food, and this machine met the demand.

30 times faster than using a sickle.

As you can see on the bottom, America is not even a continent but is not that far away from Europe and Asia. This was in 2017 but the reason why America is so high up there is the chart is becuase of the influence the Reaper made.

The Horse drawn mechanical reaper produces wheat 12 times faster than the sickle. The orange part is the Reaper, and the green, is the sickle.

More About the Mechanical Reaper.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZ8j1gleciA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjVVtXYaP0s&t=12s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZNHRXOWptw

Bibliography

“McCormick-Deering No. 9 Horse-Drawn Mower Serviceman's Guide.” Small Farmer's Journal, 5 Dec. 2019, https://smallfarmersjournal.com/mccormick-deering-no-9-horse-drawn-mower-servicemans-guide/. “Take Online Courses. Earn College Credit. Research Schools, Degrees & Careers.” Study.com | Take Online Courses. Earn College Credit. Research Schools, Degrees & Careers, https://study.com/academy/lesson/mechanical-reaper-invention-impact-facts.html. McNamara, Robert. “A Mechanical Harvesting Machine Revolutionized Life on the Farm.” ThoughtCo, ThoughtCo, 21 June 2019, https://www.thoughtco.com/mccormick-reaper-1773393. https://lemelson.mit.edu/resources/cyrus-mccormick