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Scientific American Front Page May 14 1881 McCormick: Scientific American May 14, 1881 woodcut on front page of Manufacture of harvesting Machine McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, Chicago
McCormick HARVESTING MACHINES.
Inventions which have resulted in great industries and the development of great natural resources will always be subjects of deep interest to the student of history and political economy. The cotton gin rendered available the vast agricultural resources of the Southern States, and the correspondingly great cotton manufacturing interests of England and New England. The reaper did as much for Northern agriculture, making possible the harvests which have taxed the powers of transportation, reversed the balance of our trade with Europe, and carried our national prosperity to the highest level.
America is the birthplace and home of the reaping machine. Here it was invented and first successfully introduced, here its greatest achievements have been won, and here it has proved itself one of the factors in transforming a continent from a state of primitive solitude to be the home of fifty million enterprising people engaged in all the arts and manufactures of civilization.
When we look back fifty years and remember that the reaping hook and grain cradle were the only means the farmer then had of securing his crop, we are led to wonder how many centuries most have elapsed before the land west of the Alleghanies could have been settled as it is to-day, not only to the Mississippi, but from ocean to ocean. The reaping machine has not only made this possible, but has made farming profitable on a scale never dreamed of before. In Minnesota and Dakota there are grain farms of from ten to thirty thousand acres, whose princely owners purchase and operate reaping machines by the score and by the hundred.
The first successful reaping machine put in use was invented and constructed by Cyrus H. McCormick, a native of Rock bridge County, Virginia, in 1831, a patent upon which was granted by the United States in 1834, and this original machine is recognized as the type and pattern after which all others of subsequent date have been modeled.Bolt & Nut Deptartment
The manufacture of this machine was commenced in Virginia. But not until 1845, at Cincinnati, Ohio, did the annual product reach a large number. During that year 500 were constructed and sold. In 1846-7-8 some machines were manufactured at Brockport, N. Y., on "royalty." With discriminating judgment Mr. McCormick foresaw that Chicago was to be the center of trade in the Northwest, by reason of its favorable geographical position and superior shipping facilities, and lie therefore transferred the manufacture to that city in 1847, building 500 machines in the new shops. In 1848, 700 machines were made and sold, and in 1849 the figure reached 1,500. Here the first works for making the reaping machine were erected, and the improvement of the machines themselves vigorously commenced, and from that time onward the development of this great industry has been commensurate with the strides which Chicago has made.
Soon after this, Mr. McCormick induced his two brothers, William S. and Leander J., to come from Virginia to Chicago to assist him in the manufacture of the machine. The former continued with him until his death in 1865, and the latter until now having an interest of one-fourth in the corporation, the remaining three-fourths belonging to Cyrus H. McCormick.Main Machine Room
The works of the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, a view of which, together with the various departments, we have represented on our first page, are situated in the southwestern portion of the city of Chicago, upon the bank of the river, and at a point where all the vast network of Chicago railroads centers.
Ten rooms, 100x60 feet, occupied by the woodworking department, are fitted with the most improved machinery for planning, sawing, shaping, and dressing the various wood parts of the machines. The construction of the main wheels for the harvester is an interesting study in itself, and in this alone are involved more than a dozen processes in wood and iron work. We have shown in the engraving the last operation in its construction that of putting on the tire.Making Harvester Wheels
The greatest interest to an observer centers in the machine shop. Looking down the long aisles of machinery, the attention of the visitor is drawn to the many curiously shaped machines of special design necessary in the various processes of the iron work.McCormick Foundry
The tendency now is toward the extensive use of iron in the construction of the machines, which insures greater strength and lightness, and gives the machine a more attractive appearance. As a consequence, the lathe work necessary is largely increased, and this renders specially designed machinery and tools indispensable. For example, the introduction of the inclosed gear frames for reapers, mowers, and droppers necessitated a machine which could bore all the holes required for shafts, etc., at one operation, and several of these are in use, which cost thousands of dollars to build.
The boring of the rake posts, cams, iron frames of binders and reapers, and many other parts of the machines needs such special machinery as we have alluded to.
This perfection of the work renders easy the renewal of any part in the field, should any piece become broken or worn, and insures the exact duplication of it at any time thereafter, so long as the patterns may be preserved. The blacksmith shop is a large building provided with all
the appliances for cutting, punching, forging, and shaping the various pieces of wrought iron used in the construction of the machines.
The foundry is a fine structure. 245x90 feet, with two wings, one of them 80x60 feet. Here about 75 tons of pig-iron, from its two cupolas, are daily transformed into castings of all descriptions.
McCormick Works at Chicago
The foundation of all reaping machines is the sickle-bar, which our artist has graphically represented on the first page, and it is well worthy of note that the original cutting apparatus invented by Cyrus H. McCormick, fifty years ago, has never been superseded or improved in its essential features. A large building in the center of the rectangle contains the grindstones, upon which the knives are ground, the tapping machines for serrating the edges of the sections or blades, the machines for rolling the bars, and the room for assembling all the parts necessary to form the complete cutting apparatus.
From the iron and wood working departments all the material for the construction of the machines passes to the paint shops, where the rude contrasts of wood and iron in their natural colors are made to blend harmoniously and with pleasing effect to the eye, by means of the artist's skillful brush. The spacious paint shop, comprising more than a dozen rooms, 100x60 feet, are constantly crowded to their fullest ex-tent, and only the most skilled labor is employed in the final decoration of the machines.
The packing departments, which we have not space to illustrate, are of unusual interest to the casual observer, this work being a science peculiar to itself. The contents of the packing boxes are of such varied shapes and sizes that only long experience and practice on the part of the packers enable them to place them in perhaps one-half the cubic space that an unskillful person would require. The shipping is conducted with great system, and the facilities are such that from twelve to twenty cars can be loaded and dispatched each day. The repair department is a small world of business in itself, embracing as it does the parts of all the McCormick machines made during the past twenty years. All the duplicate parts on hand can be known at once, and any part that is wanted for repairing any McCormick machine can be produced on demand.Setting Up Finger Bars
That the machines may constantly meet the requirements of the farmer in every respect, and for experimenting with new devices, a corps of draughtsmen, pattern and model makers are employed.
The company finds itself under the necessity of enlarging its manufacturing facilities (luring the coming season to meet. the naturally increasing demand for it, product ions.
A most interesting department to all scientific persons, in this manufacture, is found in the patented inventions which enter into the construction of the machines, and in the patents which the company holds for the use and protection of their business. To one not familiar with the details of this interest, the importance and magnitude of the operations herein involved would be almost incredible. The original patents of Cyrus H. McCormick, granted in 1834, 1845, and 1847, expired before any material return for his labors accrued to the inventor, and when endeavoring to obtain their extension at the Patent Office a right which was accorded almost every other inventor of such prominence Mr. McCormick's claim was refused, not on the ground of its invalidity, but because the invention was of too great importance to the world at large to admit of being placed virtually under the control of one man; as would be the case should the patents referred to have been extended. Thus were the essential features of his invention made public, and the inventor was forced to come into competition with other manufactures of the product of his own brain. In improvements upon the original, therefore, lay his greatest chance of success, and in this, as in the first machine, he was foremost. With the introduction into general use of the reaping machine, the attention of inventors on every hand was drawn toward further improvement in this direction, and applications for patents upon every conceivable mechanical device which could be utilized in connection with harvesting machines have flooded the Patent Office from that time to the present. To the extensive manufacturer, therefore, it becomes a matter of necessity to protect himself from being assailed on every hand by speculators in patents upon every important new feature developed by him, and by obtaining control of or interests in such patents as might bear upon the forms of his construction and manufacture. It affords, therefore, to the McCormick Harvesting Ma-chine Company a power not possessed by other competing manufacturers, that they are the owners of and hold interests in hundreds of patents of this nature. Especially in the development of their twine binder is the value of this self-protection evident, for claimants are constantly arising to share, if possible, in any advantage which may accrue from the use of a particular device tending toward the improvement of the machines.
Setting Up Machines
Comparing the machines which the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company and all their competitors now manufacture with the original reaper invented by Cyrus H. McCormick, as constructed by him in 1847, it will be found that all the vital elements .of successful and practical work are retained intact, namely, the cutting apparatus, divider, reel, platform, attachment of the horses; yet from step to step the advancement has been in taking away all manual assistance from the machine, making it as far as possible entirely automatic. The addition of a seat or stand enabling the raker to ride on the machine instead of walking by its side; the substitution of the self-rake for the hand rake; the placing the binder stand upon the machine, whereby the men bound the sheaves while riding, instead of lifting them from the ground; the substitution of the automatic binder for the manual labor; and, finally, the automatic trip, whereby the size of the sheaf throws the binding mechanism into operation, are all consecutive steps in the progress of invention and development of the reaping machine.
Wood Sawing & Planing Department
Few of our readers can have any idea of the magnitude of this branch of industry. In all the harvest fields of the world the McCormick machines are at work, and the farmers of Australia, New Zealand, France, Italy, and Russia, are as familiar with their superior merits as are the farmers of Illinois, at whose doors they are manufactured. We believe that the verdict of the leading scientific and mechanical authorities of the present day is unanimous in placing the McCormick machines in the lead of all others. At each successive World's International Exposition, from the World's Fair at London, in 1851, to the Melbourne Exposition of 1880, the highest honors have been without exception awarded to the McCormick reaper.
The great extent of this trade at home and abroad will be better understood when we say that there have been built and sold over 300,000 of the McCormick machines since 1849, beginning with an annual product of 1,500 machines, ' and increasing as the country developed, until the present annual production exceeds 30,000 machines.
McCormick Self Binding Harvester
It is estimated that there are at this time 200,000 McCormick machines in existence, capable of harvesting annually 60,000,000 acres of grain and grass, an area equal to the entire surface of the great States of New York and Pennsylvania,, requiring an army of 200,000 men and 400,000 horses, and furnishing employment for tens of thousands engaged in handling and transporting the vast grain crops of the world. And the man whose brain evolved the idea of a successful reaping machine, and who carried the thought into deeds, and whose energy and shrewdness put this vast force at work, is alive among us today, enjoying his well-merited honors and success. His name will go down to posterity as one of the great benefactors of the human race whose victories have been won in the successful effort to lessen toil and bless mankind. What the future of the reaping machine will be when the vast territories of the unexplored far away North¬west—the great grain belt of the world—shall have been brought under cultivation, we leave to the imagination of the reader, our duty as journalists being to trace the early history and present standing of this very important branch of national industry.