Patrick Bell
Patrick Bell (12 May 1799 – 22 April 1869) was a Church of Scotland minister and inventor.
Biography
Born in the rural parish of Auchterhouse in Angus, Scotland, into a farming family, Bell chose to study divinity at the University of St Andrews. He was Carmyllie parish minister from 1843 until his death.
The Reaping Machine
![man guiding two horses pushing machine](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/94/George_Heriot_Swanston03.jpg/330px-George_Heriot_Swanston03.jpg)
Bell invented the reaping machine while working on his father's farm. His interest in mechanics led him to work on a horse powered mechanical reaper for speeding up the harvest. In 1828 his machine was used with success on his father's farm and others in the district.
This reaping machine used a revolving 12 vane reel to pull the crop over the cutting knife, that was made from triangular reciprocating blades over fixed triangular blades. A canvas conveyor moved the grain and stalks to the side in a windrow. This machine was pushed by livestock and ran on 2 wheels.[1]
Bell never sought a patent for his reaping machine. Being a man of God, he believed his invention should benefit all mankind. Therefore, he never made any financial gain from its success throughout the world.
On May 3, 1831, a patent was issued in the United States to William Manning for the reaper of essentially the same design. On December 31, 1833, a similar cutter patent was issued to Obed Hussey. A vibrating cutter was patented by Cyrus McCormick on June 21, 1834. McCormick with his brothers mass-produced the machines and developed what became the International Harvester Company.[2]
References
- ^ William H. Doolittle (1903). Inventions in the century. London: W. & R. Chambers.
- ^ George Iles (1912). "Cyrus H. McCormick". Leading American Inventors (2nd ed.). New York: Henry Holt and Company. pp. 276–314.
External links
- http://www.auchterhouse.com/history/pbell.htm Archived 16 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- https://web.archive.org/web/20081006144523/http://www.angus.gov.uk/history/features/people/patrickbell.htm
- http://www.cornways.de/hi_combine.html
- http://nms.scran.ac.uk/database/record.php?scache=5cryr2dbs0&searchdb=scran&usi=000-100-044-206-C