The Mechanical Reaper
The first mechanical scythe!
The start of industrialized agriculture.
Invented by Cyrus McCormick in 1831, this cotton gin inspired machine made wheat harvesting way quicker and more efficient.
The Most Useful Wheat Harvester of the 19th Century.
The Mechanical Reaper was horse drawn and replaced the need for manual harvest as it was fast and easy to use.
The Reaper's Impact
The Mechanical Reaper was inspired by Eli Whitney's cotton gin. It was invented to speed up the harvest of a variety of small crops. It replaced manual scythes and sickles and led to the mass harvest of wheat, as well as the production of advanced harvesting machines.
The inventor
At the age of 22, Cyprus McCormick expanded on his father's idea of a mechanical scythe. He got most of his inspiration from Eli Whitney, after he invented the widely popular cotton gin.