Photograph as originally submitted to this page in the Historical Marker Database www.HMdb.org. Click on photo to resize in browser. Scroll down to see metadata.

Photographer: Don Morfe
Taken: August 1, 2013
Caption: Cyrus H. McCormick Marker
Additional Description: The world’s first reaper-reproduction of the machine invented by Cyrus Hall McCormick built on the McCormick Farm near Steele’s Tavern, Virginia, and tested there in July, 1831. Cyrus Hall McCormick’s reaper combined for the first time and in their true balance and proportion the basic elements or principles which have ever since been found essential in virtually all grain-cutting machines. McCormick’s seven basic principles were as follows: 1. The straight knife with serrated edge and reciprocal or vibrating motion which cuts the grain. 2. Fingers or guards extending from the platform to prevent the grain from slipping sideways while being cut. 3. The revolving reel which holds the grain against the knife and lays the cut stalks on the platform. 4. Platform behind the knife for receiving the cut grain and holding it until raked off. 5. The master wheel carries most of the weight of the machine and, through ground traction, furnishes power to operate the reel and the knife. 6. Forward draft from the right or stubble side by means of shafts attached in front of the master wheel. 7. A divider on the left side to separate the grain to be cut from that to be left standing. In 1851 Mr. McCormick was awarded one of the highest honors granted by the Royal Commissioners of the Great World’s Fair at London, England---The Council Medal. The London Times, commenting editorially, said that the McCormick reaper was worth the whole cost of the Exposition, and: “The reaping machine from the United States is the most valuable contribution from abroad to the stock of our previous knowledge that we have yet discovered. Edward Burke, U.S. Commissioner of Patients, wrote March 4, 1850. “It is one of those great and valuable inventions which commence a new era in the progress of improvement and where beneficial influence is felt in all coming time.”
Submitted: August 2, 2013, by Don Morfe of Baltimore, Maryland.
Database Locator Identification Number: p249142
File Size: 2.113 Megabytes

To see the metadata that may be embedded in this photo, sign in and then return to this page.