When did Cyrus McCormick build the mechanical reaper?
Cyrus Hall McCormick of Virginia invented the mechanical reaper in July, 1831. By 1847, Cyrus McCormick began to mass manufacture it in a Chicago factory.The independent invention of two successful reaping machines - one by Obed Hussey in Ohio, who obtained the first patent in 1834, and by Cyrus McCormick in Virginia - brought about an end to tedious handiwork and encouraged the invention and manufacture of other labor-saving farm implements and machinery.The first reapers cut the standing grain and, with a revolving reel, swept it onto a platform from which it was raked off into piles by a man walking alongside. It could harvest more grain than five men using the earlier cradles. The next innovation, patented in 1858, was a self-raking reaper with an endless canvas belt that delivered the cut grain to two men who riding on the end of the platform, bundled it. Meanwhile, Cyrus McCormick had moved to Chicago, built a reaper factory, and founded what eventually became the International Harvester Company. In 1872 he produced a reaper which automatically bound the bundles with wire. In 1880, he came out with a binder which, using a magical knotting device (invented by John F. Appleby a Wisconsin pastor) bound the handles with twine.