1809-1884

The invention of the reaper revolutionized the difficult and time-consuming work of harvesting wheat. Farmers could now harvest and sell more wheat, and fewer people were needed to work on farms, resulting in a migration to the cities. Improvements brought by the reaper led to other inventions such as threshers and combine harvesters.

Profiles Cyrus Hall McCormick, whose hatred of farm work led him to invent a machine which made it much quicker and easier to harvest wheat, and which turned him into a multi-millionaire businessman.

A biography of Cyrus Hall McCormick whose distaste for the hard labor of farm work led him to invent a machine which made it much quicker and easier to harvest wheat.