Cyrus Hall Mccormick Essay, Research Paper

Cyrus Hall McCormickThe mechanical reaper. A time-saving invention which allowed farmersto more than double their crop size while at the same time spurringother innovations in farm machinery. This reaper, which combined allthe steps that earlier harvesting machines had performed separately, wasthe brilliant innovation of a man, a man named Cyrus Hall McCormick. Born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, Cyrus was son to a man who’simagination also boggled with new inventions. As a child, Cyrusexperimented with different tools in hopes of inventing something whichwould simplify his father’s job. Finally, in 1831, he built his firstreaper. Succeeding where his father had failed, Cyrus made someadjustments to his machine before patenting his invention in 1834. Ataround the same time (1833), a man by the name of Obed Hussey announceda the construction of a reaper of his own. The year was 1840, and by this time, McCormick had started tomanufacture his creation and sold it for the first time in Virginia.The reaper’s marketing did very well, and it’s sales had expanded toother parts of the United States by 1844. Because of it’s efficiency,the horse-drawn reaper allowed farmers to harvest five times the regular2 acre per day amount that skilled workers used to harvest. In 1847, the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company was moved to Chicago.Location, ease of distribution, and reputation were all factors whichconvinced McCormick that Chicago was the place for him. “Centrallylocated in the Midwest, he used the Great Lakes to transport reapers tothe East, and the Mississippi River to transport to the South.”* Whatmore, as industries grew in the Windy City, Chicago soon turned into amajor railroad central in the 1850’s. This added to the distributionpotential which McCormick needed to ship his reapers out to other partsof the US. The company’s success thrived under the name McCormick HarvestingMachine Company until McCormick’s death in 1884. By this time,

McCormick’s company had grown to become one of greatest industrialestablishments in the United States. Chicago newspapers were braggingabout his success and other companies awed at the pace of development. Shortly after his death, the company had a “face-lift.” It’s namechanged to the International Harvester, and sales slowed down from it’sinitial boom. In 1907, the company produced the Auto Buggy. With thismachine, farmers were able to haul their goods to the markets. Lessthen ten years later, the International Harvester also produced thecountry’s first school bus. Thus, started to revolutionize the truckingmarket.In the 1950’s, International Harvester experienced a period of growthlike never before. A huge demand for trucks was needed as the country’sinterstate system broke in. Trucking became the choice transportationfor manufacturers and large companies. Transportation by shipment wasnot only a more reliable source, but also cheaper. This new source alsocreated an unbelievable amount of new jobs as well. As this new fad (of shipment) caught on, International Harvester didn’tsee a need for the production of farming and agricultural machineryanymore. Focusing on it’s core business-truck manufacturing-the companycombined its truck and engine operations together under the parent nameof Navistar in 1986. Its agricultural and constructing divisions weresold to other companies. Today, Navistar encompasses six primary areas: Heavy Trucks, MediumTrucks, School Buses, Engine and Foundry, Parts, and Navistar FinancialCorporation. Navistar has approximately 15,000 employees in more than40 locations worldwide. It’s world headquarters is still located inChicago, though (NBC Tower). Bibliography:Internet:Navistar Home Page: www.navistar.comNational Inventor’s Hall of Fame: www.invent.orgEncyclopedia:World Book Encyclopedia v.14 “McCormick, Cyrus” 1990Books:School’s History BookArticles:”Time” 34A0615″Forbes” 33V1684