![]() ![]() In 1902 the McCormicks and other large producers of mechanical reapers merged to create a giant firm known as International Harvester. When Cyrus died in 1884, his son Cyrus Jr. Still, the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company continued to compete in the last half of the nineteenth century. Indeed, new competitors were inventing and producing better machines more rapidly. By 1865 McCormick possessed only 5 percent of the reaper market. ![]() During the 1850s, while the number of reapers he produced increased as a result of continuous demand, his market share declined. ![]() Despite these legal obstacles, by 1850 McCormick had produced more than 1,600 reapers and had captured 50 percent of the American market. McCormick repeatedly went to court to protect a variety of patents. There were other competitors as well, making McCormick’s patents difficult to protect. In fact, Obed Hussey patented his first reaper a year before McCormick and remained his main competitor for years. It is important to realize that Cyrus McCormick was not the only inventor of the new reaper. They manufactured 500 mechanical reapers there in 1848. McCormick realized that a factory in the Midwest could significantly increase sales, so in 1847 he and a partner built a factory in Chicago. Between his own workshop in Virginia and some contractors in Cincinnati, Ohio, McCormick turned out 150 reapers in 1845. Although Cyrus McCormick left the farm machine business for a few years, his reaper, which would come to transform agriculture in the Trans-Appalachian West, hit the market in 1840. After making improvements, the younger McCormick patented his new reaper in 1834. Robert McCormick experimented with a reaper and gave it to his son, Cyrus, in 1831. Early mechanical reapers appeared in England around 1800, and inventors in Europe and the United States continued to explore new possibilities. Cyrus Hall McCormick was born in Virginia in 1809 his father, Robert, was something of a tinkerer himself. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |