biography
| name: |
McCormick, Cyrus (Hall)
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1809–84)
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| biography:
| Inventor and manufacturer, born in Rockbridge Co, Virginia, USA. His father, Robert McCormick (1780–1846), patented several agricultural implements, but abandoned his efforts to develop a mechanical reaper in 1831. Cyrus took up the project and patented a reaper in 1834, a year after the US Patent Office had recognized a similar machine. He and his competitors engaged in a fierce rivalry, but the McCormick Harvesting Machine Co emerged dominant due to constant improvements on his reaper, his use of labour-saving machinery in his factory, and his adoption of new marketing methods, such as deferred payments and guarantees. He used some of his vast wealth to support a Presbyterian theological seminary (after 1886, the McCormick Theological Seminary) and other institutions, and was active in Illinois Democratic politics. In 1902 his manufacturing firm became the International Harvester Co. |
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