Combine Harvesters: Reforming Agriculture in Future
Combine Harvesters The Combine Harvester, also simply known as a combine, is one of the most important inventions in modern agriculture. By consolidating the jobs of reaping, threshing and winnowing into a single machine, the Combine Harvester has allowed farmers to harvest crops much more quickly and efficiently than was previously possible. Early Development The earliest prototypes of machines that combined reaping and threshing began to appear in the mid-19th century. Some of the earliest pioneers include Hiram Moore who invented a combined reaper and thresher in 1834. In 1835, the Obed Hussey developed a reaper that cut and gathered grain but did not yet have a mechanism for threshing. It was not until the invention of the grain separator by John H. Manny and Lester A.A. Pelton in the 1870s that combined reaping, threshing and winnowing became possible in one operation. However, it was the invention of the Combine Harvester by Hiram Moore in 1837 and its improvements by othe