CYRUS HALL McCORMICK 



the problem worst end first. The Reaper that 

 would cut such grain, he believed, must first 

 separate the grain that is to be cut from the 

 grain that is left standing. It must have at the 

 end of its knife a curved arm a divider. This 

 idea was simple, but in the long history of har- 

 vesting grain no one had thought of it before. 

 Next, in order to cut this snarled and prostrate 

 grain without missing any of it, the knife must 

 have two motions : its forward motion, as drawn 

 by the horses, and also a slashing sideways mo- 

 tion of its own. How was this to be done? 

 McCormick's first thought was to cut the grain 

 with a whirling wheel-knife, but this plan pre- 

 sented too many new difficulties. Suddenly the 

 idea came to him why not have a straight 

 blade, with a back and forward motion of its 

 own ? This was the birth-idea of the reciprocat- 

 ing blade, which has been used to this day on all 

 grain-cutting machines. It was not, like the 

 divider, a wholly new conception; but Cyrus 

 McCormick conceived it independently, and did 

 more than any one else to establish it as the 

 basic feature of the Reaper. 



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