Patrick Bell

Born in the rural parish of Auchterhouse in Angus, Scotland, 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.

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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 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.{{cite book |title= Inventions in the century |author= William H. Doolittle |author-link= William H. Doolittle |year= 1903 |publisher= W. & R. Chambers |location= London |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=9xclAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA36 }}

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 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 on June 21, 1834. McCormick with his brothers mass-produced the machines and developed what became the International Harvester Company.{{Cite book |author= George Iles |year = 1912 |edition= 2nd |title = Leading American Inventors |place =New York |publisher = Henry Holt and Company| url = https://archive.org/details/leadingamericani00ilesrich |pages=276–314 |chapter= Cyrus H. McCormick }}

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• http://www.auchterhouse.com/history/pbell.htm {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120216013929/http://www.auchterhouse.com/history/pbell.htm |date=16 February 2012 }}
• 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

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Category:1799 births

Category:1869 deaths

Category:19th-century ministers of the Church of Scotland

Category:19th-century Scottish Presbyterian ministers

Category:Scottish inventors