Editing Reaper (section)

==Mechanical reaping==
A mechanical reaper or reaping machine is a mechanical, semi-automated device that harvests crops.  Mechanical reapers and their descendant machines have been an important part of [[mechanised agriculture|mechanized agriculture]] and a main feature of [[agricultural productivity]].

===Mechanical reapers in the U.S.===
[[File:Cyrus McCormick's reaper.jpg|thumb|[[Cyrus McCormick|McCormick's]] reaper. For a 20 minute film that gives the reaper story see [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuqACE1AG_A online at YouTube] ]]

The 19th century saw several inventors in the United States claim innovation in mechanical reapers. The various designs competed with each other, and were the subject of several lawsuits.<ref name="McCormick_1931">{{Harvnb|McCormick|1931}}.</ref>

[[Obed Hussey]] in Ohio patented a reaper in 1833, the ''Hussey Reaper''.<ref name="cheap">{{cite book |editor=Follet L. Greeno | year=1912 | title=Obed Hussey: Who, of All Inventors, Made Bread Cheap |url= http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19547 }}</ref> Made in [[Baltimore, Maryland]], Hussey's design was a major improvement in reaping efficiency. The new reaper only required two [[horse]]s working in a non-strenuous manner, a man to work the machine, and another person to drive. In addition, the Hussey Reaper left an even and clean surface after its use.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Colman|first=Gould P. |title= Innovation and Diffusion in Agriculture |journal=Agricultural History |volume=42 |date=July 1968|pages=173–188}}</ref>

The ''McCormick Reaper'' was designed by [[Robert Hall McCormick|Robert McCormick]] in [[Cyrus McCormick Farm|Walnut Grove]], [[Virginia]]. However, Robert became frustrated when he was unable to perfect his new device. His son Cyrus asked for permission to try to complete his father's project. With permission granted,<ref>{{cite book | first=Jeffrey| last=Bowman| author-link=Jeffrey Bowman| year=2006| title=Cyrus Hall McCormick }}</ref> the McCormick Reaper was patented<ref>{{US patent|X8277}} ''Improvement in Machines for Reaping Small Grain'': Cyrus H. McCormick, June 21, 1834</ref> by his son [[Cyrus McCormick]] in 1834 as a horse-drawn farm implement to cut small [[cereal|grain]] crops.<ref name="Forbes27">{{cite book|first=Gross|last=Daniel|date=August 1997|title=Forbes Greatest Business Stories of All Time|edition=First|publisher=John Wiley & Sons |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_0471196533/page/27 27]|isbn=978-0-471-19653-2|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_0471196533/page/27}}</ref> This McCormick reaper machine had several special elements:

* a main wheel frame
* projected to the side a platform containing a cutter bar having fingers through which reciprocated a knife driven by a crank
* upon the outer end of the platform was a divider projecting ahead of the platform to separate the grain to be cut from that to be left standing
* a reel was positioned above the platform to hold the grain against the reciprocating knife to throw it back upon the platform
* the machine was drawn by a team walking at the side of the grain.<ref>{{cite journal |title= Agricultural Machinery in the 1800s |journal= [[Scientific American]] |volume= 75 |issue= 4 |pages= 74–76 |date=July 25, 1896 |doi= 10.1038/scientificamerican07251896-74 }}</ref>
Cyrus McCormick claimed that his reaper was actually invented in 1831, giving him the true claim to the general design of the machine. Over the next few decades the Hussey and McCormick reapers would compete with each other in the marketplace, despite being quite similar. By the 1850s, the original patents of both Hussey and McCormick had expired and many other manufacturers put similar machines on the market.<ref>Canine, Craig. ''Dream Reaper: The Story of an Old-Fashioned Inventor in the High-Tech, High-Stakes World of Modern Agriculture.'' New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995. Pages 29–45.</ref>

In 1861, the [[United States Patent and Trademark Office]] issued a ruling on the invention of the polarizing reaper design. It was determined that the money made from reapers was in large part due to Obed Hussey. S. T. Shubert, the acting commissioner of patents, declared that Hussey's improvements were the foundation of their success. It was ruled that the heirs of Obed Hussey would be monetarily compensated for his hard work and innovation by those who had made money from the reaper. It was also ruled that McCormick's reaper patent would be renewed for another seven years.<ref name="cheap"/>

Although the McCormick reaper was a revolutionary innovation for the harvesting of crops, it did not experience mainstream success and acceptance until at least 20 years after it was patented by Cyrus McCormick. This was because the McCormick reaper lacked a quality unique to Obed Hussey's reaper. Hussey's reaper used a sawlike cutter bar that cut stalks far more effectively than McCormick's. Only once Cyrus McCormick was able to acquire the rights to Hussey's cutter-bar mechanism (around 1850) did a truly revolutionary machine emerge.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Olmstead|first=Alan L. |title=The Mechanization of Reaping and Mowing in American Agriculture |journal=The Journal of Economic History |volume=35 |issue=2 |date=June 1975|page=327 |doi=10.1017/s0022050700075082|s2cid=154366322 }}</ref> Other factors in the gradual uptake of mechanized reaping included natural cultural conservatism among farmers (proven tradition versus new and unknown machinery); the poor state of many new farm fields, which were often littered with rocks, stumps, and areas of uneven soil, making the lifespan and operability of a reaping machine questionable; and some amount of fearful [[Luddite fallacy|Luddism]] among farmers that the machine would take away jobs, most especially among hired [[manual labour]]ers.<ref name="PrippsMorland1993p17">{{Citation |last1=Pripps |first1=Robert N. |last2=Morland |first2=Andrew (photographer) |year=1993 |title=Farmall Tractors: History of International McCormick-Deering Farmall Tractors |series=Farm Tractor Color History Series |publisher=MBI |location=Osceola, WI, USA |isbn=978-0-87938-763-1 |page=17}}</ref>

Another strong competitor in the industry was the Manny Reaper by [[John Henry Manny]] and the companies that succeeded him. Even though McCormick has sometimes been simplistically credited as the [sole] "inventor" of the [[Reaper#Mechanical reapers in the U.S.|mechanical reaper]], a more accurate statement is that he independently reinvented aspects of it, created a crucial original integration of enough aspects to make a successful whole, and benefited from the influence of more than two decades of work by his father, as well as the aid of Jo Anderson, a slave held by his family.<ref>{{cite news|title=Jo Anderson|url=http://www.richmond.com/special-section/black-history/article_277b0072-700a-11e2-bb3d-001a4bcf6878.html|access-date=22 April 2015|newspaper=[[Richmond Times-Dispatch]]|date=5 February 2013}}</ref>

===Reapers in the late 19th and 20th century===
After the first reapers were developed and patented, other slightly different reapers were distributed by several manufacturers throughout the world. The ''Champion (Combined) Reapers and Mowers''<!--several types were manufacured, plural therefore-->, produced by the Champion Interest]group (''Champion Machine Company'', later ''Warder, Bushnell & Glessner'', absorbed in [[International Harvester|IHC]] 1902) in [[Springfield, Ohio]] in the second half of the 19th century, were highly successful in the 1880s in the United States.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=3025&nm=William-N-Whiteley |title=William N. Whiteley |publisher=Ohio History Central |date=2007-01-09 |access-date=2012-08-04}}</ref> Springfield is still known as "The Champion City".

Generally, reapers developed into the 1872 invented [[reaper-binder]], which reaped the crop and bound it into sheaves.  By 1896, 400,000 reaper-binders were estimated to be harvesting grain.{{clarify|post-text=(number for the US only?)|date=December 2010}} This was in turn replaced by the [[swather]] and eventually the [[combine harvester]], which reaps and threshes in one operation.

In [[Central Europe]]an agriculture reapers were – together with reaper-binders – common machines until the mid-20th century.

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px">
File:Champion Trade Card, 1875.jpg|Champion reaper, [[trade card]] from 1875
File:Adriance reaper, 19th century illustration.jpg| Adriance reaper, late 19th century
File:Boys can use farm machines-1900.jpg|1900 ad for McCormick farm machines—"Your boy can operate them"
File:Feature. Agricultural School BAnQ P48S1P06852.jpg|Horse-drawn reaper in [[Canada]] in 1941
File:Flügelmaschine.jpg| McCormick self-rake-reaper in use in Thuringia (Germany)  1950
</gallery>