While farming might not hold the same sway in the American economy as it did in the 19th century, it's still vital to our very survival. 

Without farms, we wouldn't have much of our food, and without the combine harvester, farming foods such as wheat, oats, rye, barley, corn, sorghum, soybeans, flax, sunflowers, and canola would be far more difficult. 

About the Combine Harvester

The combine harvester is one of those great inventions in history that most of us don't think about or even know about, and yet it has a huge impact on our life. 

So, what is it exactly? It's a versatile machine that's designed to efficiently harvest a variety of crops—separating straw from the nutrients left in it.

The truth is that combine harvesters are one of the most economically important labor-saving inventions in agriculture. In fact, they are responsible for significantly reducing the number of individuals required to farm.

History of the Combine Harvester

The combine harvester got its start in Scotland in 1826 when Reverend Patrick Bell designed the reaper machine—a large machine that was pushed by horses and used scissors to cut plants. 

Unfortunately, Bell didn't patent his invention. So, in 1835, Hiram Moore built and patented the first combine harvester in the United States. 

Moore's machine was capable of reaping, threshing, and winnowing cereal grain, with the earlier versions being pulled by horse, mule, or ox. 

The first version was 17ft long and could cut 15ft of grain at a time, and by 1839, a combine harvester pulled by 20 horses harvested over 50 acres of crops. 

Then, by 1860, combine harvesters that could cut a width of several meters were used on most American farms. 

 A few decades later, in 1882, Australian Hugh Victor McKay developed a similar idea for a great invention. He created the first commercial combine harvester called the Sunshine Harvester. 

However, it wouldn't be until George Stockton Berry that the combine harvest became steam-powered thanks to the integration of the steam engine and straw to heat the boiler.

Important Dates 

● In 1911, the Holt Manufacturing Company produced the first self-propelled harvester.

● In 1915, International Harvester started making horse-pulled combines.

● In the 1920s, the Case Corporation and John Deere started making combines that were tractor pulled but also had a second engine aboard the combine to power its workings.

● In 1923, the Baldwin brothers out of Kansas and the Gleaner Manufacturing Company patented a self-propelled harvester, which used Fordson engines.

● In 1929, Alfredo Rotania of Argentina patented another self-propelled harvester.

Then, after World War II, tractor-drawn combines become common. These combines used a shaker to separate the grain from the chaff and straw and were great for smaller farms. One example is the All-Crop Harvester series.

The Rise of the Modern Day Combine Harvester 

In the US, Allis-Chalmers, Massey-Harris, International Harvester, Gleaner Manufacturing Company, John Deere, and Minneapolis Moline are the major combine producers. 

These companies really got their start around 1937, when Thomas Carroll of Australia started working for Massey-Harris and perfected the self-propelled combine harvester. 

By 1940, a lighter-weight model began to be widely marketed by the company, and by 1947, Lyle Yost would invent an auger that could lift grain out of the combine making unloading much easier. 

By 1953, the combine harvester was popular in Europe, and manufacturer Claas developed a self-propelled machine called "Hercules" that could harvest up to 5 tons of wheat a day. 

This machine is still in use today and powered by diesel and gasoline engines. Rotary combines were introduced in 1975 by Sperry-New Holland, and in the 1980s, on–board electronics were introduced for better grain yields. 

Inside the Combine Harvester 

There's a lot that goes into great inventions like the combine harvester including gears, blades, augers, conveyors, belts, levels, and wheels. Roughly speaking, here's how it works:

● Cereal crops are gathers by the header, which can be raised, lowered, and angled in different ways to gather the most crops.

● From there, a slowly rotating wheel pushes the crops down toward the cutter.

● The cutter bar runs the length of the wheel and opens and closes to repeatedly cut the crops at their base.

● Behind the cutter, the crops are fed toward an augur and up a conveyor to the processing mechanism.

● In the threshing drum, the crops are broken apart, and the grains and shook away from their stalks.

● The grains fall through a sieve into a collecting tank, and the chaff (unwanted material) takes another conveyor belt toward the back of the machine.

● When the grain tank is full, it's taken up by an elevator and out of a side pipe into a trailer while the chaff tumbles from the back of the machine, sometimes being balled up for animal bedding.

Today, the combine remains relatively the same as its very first iteration in 1835. Despite some great advances in mechanics and computer control, the header, which cuts the crop and feeds it into the thresher, is not much changed. 

The biggest difference when it comes to modern combine harvesters is what happens to the grain and straw—how it's stored and how unwanted chaff is emptied.