Patrick Bell (12 May 1799 – 22 April 1869) was a

Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland (CoS; ; ) is a Presbyterian denomination of Christianity that holds the status of the national church in Scotland. It is one of the country's largest, having 245,000 members in 2024 and 259,200 members in 2023. While mem ...

minister and

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea, or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

Biography

Born in the rural parish of

Auchterhouse Auchterhouse (; ) is a village, community, and civil parish in the Scottish council area of Angus, located north west of Dundee, south east of Alyth and south west of Forfar. It lies on the southern edge of the Sidlaw Hills, below Auchter ...

Angus, Scotland Angus (; ) is one of the 32 Local government in Scotland, local government council areas of Scotland, and a Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area. The council area borders Aberdeenshire, Dundee City (council area), Dundee City and Per ...

, 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

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 A reaper is a farm implement that reaps (cuts and often also gathers) crops at harvest when they are ripe. Usually the crop involved is a cereal grass, especially wheat. The first documented reaping machines were Gallic reapers that were used ...

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. 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 The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

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 Cyrus Hall McCormick (February 15, 1809 – May 13, 1884) was an American inventor and businessman who founded the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, which became part of the International Harvester Company in 1902. Originally from the Blue ...

on June 21, 1834. McCormick with his brothers mass-produced the machines and developed what became the

International Harvester Company The International Harvester Company (often abbreviated IH or International) was an American manufacturer of agricultural and construction equipment, automobiles, commercial trucks, lawn and garden products, household equipment, and more. It wa ...

References

External links

*http://www.auchterhouse.com/history/pbell.htm *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 {{DEFAULTSORT:Bell, Patrick 1799 births 1869 deaths 19th-century ministers of the Church of Scotland 19th-century Scottish Presbyterian ministers Scottish inventors