His main interests outside of work were his religion and the South. McCormick devoted most of his life to work, and did not marry until age 49. railroads and South American mining interests. McCormick sold 250,000 reapers and mowers in Europe, and with much of his European profits he invested in U.S. He also began investing heavily in Chicago real estate, increasing and diversifying his personal wealth. He paid good wages to his workers, and was one of the first large manufacturers of his era to negotiate with the labor unions.īy 1856 McCormick had accumulated over $1 million in profit from his operations, and continued to earn $300,000 annually. McCormick also established a research department in his business and hired a staff to systematically improve his products. On average, a farmer using a McCormick reaper could harvest 10 acres of wheat a day, compared to two acres without the reaper. These demonstrations were usually enough to convince farmers to buy it. He advertised everywhere and conducted numerous personal demonstrations of his reaping machine. He provided deferred payments similar to credit loans and offered money-back guarantees on his product. McCormick offered many incentives to farmers to buy his reaper. Though he was having problems renewing the patent on his reaper, he nonetheless organized a mass-production system in his factory, investing heavily in labor-saving machinery to aid his work force. agricultural trade, and opened a factory to manufacture his reaping machine. In 1847 he moved to Chicago, the heart of U.S. He first developed his reaper in 1831 and spent the next 10 years perfecting it, making only a few, which were used on his father's farm.īy 1843, after bankruptcy and several unsuccessful attempts at a variety of business pursuits, McCormick finally decided to concentrate on making his fortune by producing and selling his reaping machine. This farm McCormick invented a mechanical reaping machine that greatly decreased the amount of time it took to harvest wheat. Born in Virginia on February 15, 1809, Cyrus McCormick (1805 –1884) obtained a grammar school education and assisted his father in the operation of a 1,200-acre grain and livestock farm.
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