Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/842

* REAPEES. 742 KEAPEBS. wavy outline instead of pointed sections as in Hussey's. It was provided with a divider and reels, but no seat for the attendant who raked off the cut grain. Both were side-draught ma- chines. McCormick's was arranged so that it could be either drawn or pushed. These two machines furnished the basis upon which all successful modern machines liave been con- stnicted. They continued to be improved, but wire. The most practical of these earlier ma- chines, although not strictlj' a binder, was that known as the JIarsh harvester, patented in 1858, in which the cut grain was elevated to a receiv- ing box from which it was taken and bound by two men riding on the machine. This ma- chine contained many features of the modern binder, especially the delivery of the grain by a canvas carrier over the drive wheel as dis- FlU. 5. A MODERN HABTESTEE AND BINDKE— FRONT VIEW. not until nearly the middle of the century could tinguished from the iow-dowu' type in which the binding device was at- I ■ 1 tached to the self-rake. In 1864 .Jacob Behel invented , the knotting bill, which, with slight modifications, is used in almost all modern binders. " In the meantime various fairly successful wire-bind- ing machines were put on the market by different maiui- facturers, but in 187.5 .John F. Appleby, who had invent- ed a successful twine knotter as early as 1859, made a binding ajjparatus, which with subsequent improve- ments furnished the basis for the binding apparatus of al- most all modern binders, which are essentially a com- bination of this binding de- vice with the IMarsh type of harvester. The most advanced and complicated t.vpe of harvester is probably the combined header and threslier which is used to a considerable extent in some parts of the Western United States and in Australia, where there is no fear of rain during the harvest. This machine heads, threshes, cleans, and sacks the grain at one operation. Jlaehines of this kind are pushed through the grain either by a traction engine or >y horses, thirty to forty of the latter being re- quired for each machine. They have a capacity of from 60 to 125 acres per day. Headers are also made for use uncombined with a thresher. The cut grain is deposited by means of elevators in wagons which are drawn beside the headers. It is stated that as early as 1850 a macliine was invented and successfully tried in Devonshire, England, which stripped the grain from the straw, cleaned it, and ground it into flour at one o))e ration. The mower developed simultaneously with the reaper. In fact, manj' of the earlier machines were designed to be used either as a mower or as a reaper. A separate machine for cutting grass was patented as early as 1812 by Peter Gaillard of Pennsylvania. Hussey's original ma- chine was really a mower, being built on prin- ciples afterwards adopted and developed in the construction of mowers. The most prominent name connected with the early development of mowers is that of W. F. Ketchum, who patented in 1847 a mower of simple design, having a single driving wheel. After the adoption of the Hussey type of cutter this machine proved a very successful mower of the rigid bar class. The first patent for a mower of the flexible bar type was granted to Cyrenus Wlieeler in 1854. The flexible bar idea was further developed in they be said to have achieved any practical success. They were entered in competition with each other and with English machines at the Exposition in London in 1851. Development was rapid thereafter. Both machines were introduced into England, where they influenced reaper con- struction to the abandonment of the older types. In 1848 Nelson Piatt, an American, invented a self-acting rake, which swept over a quadrantal platform and left the grain in gavels at the side of the machine. This was the first of the sweep- rake type, although numerous devices for de- livering the grain in gavels at the side of the machine had been patented. In 1851 Palmer & Williams and William H. Seymour obtained jiatents for sweep-rakes over quadrant platform. In 1856 Owen Dorsey of Maryland patented a S(^f-rake which was an improvement of Hoff- hein's type', invented in 1852. ilcCormick intro- duced iiis self-rake in 1861, based on S. A. Lindsay's patent of 1859. In this, which may be taken as a type of the self-rake machines, a rake is so used that "during one part of the revolution of the gathei-ing-reel it acts as one of the vanes of the reel in bending the standing grain to the cutting blades. When the rake reaches the cutting blades in front of the plat- form, it ceases to revolve around the reel-shaft (which continues its rotary motion), and is made to move horizontally upon a vertical hinge, to which one end is attached (the points of the teeth being near the surface of the platform ), sweeping the cut grain off at the side, and de- positing it on the ground in sheaves ready for the binder." The first recorded attempt to bind grain by machinery was made by John E. Heath of Ohio, who obtained a patent in 1850, which was for a twine or cord binder. Other patents rapidly -a machine invented by Jonathan Haines in 1855. followed for machines using cord, straw, and This had two drive wheels and a cutter bar