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The first combine harvester is built.
While the harvesting machie was originally designed in 1834 by Hiram Moore alongside John Hascal. It was one year later when Hiram built his own full size harvester for personal use. The large machine was pulled by horses or ox and harvested 50 acres of land by 1859. -
Combine Harvesters start being developed for commercial use.
Hugh Victor McKay, an Australian inventor saw the Combine Harvester not only as a revolution in farming, but a way to -
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The rise of self-propelled harvesters.
At this point in time, companies from around the world started to develop combines that could propell themselves with engines instead of being pulled by horses or ox. -
The Holt-Manufacturing Company
In 1911, California led the charge of manufacturing self-propelled harvesters with the Holt Manufacturing Company. -
The Gleaning Manufacturing Company
The Curtis brother, the owners of the American-based, Gleaner Manufacturing Company, created a self-propelled combine harvester that also included advanced technology in grain handling. -
The Sunshine Auto Header.
The Sunshine Auto Header, patented by Hugh Victor McKay, was the second self-propelled combine to be built. It's centered-feeder (the crop intake, seen at the front of the machine in the picture) made the machine much thinner and easier to operate. -
Thomas Carroll and Massey Harris Co.
Thomas Carroll was working for Massey-Harris Company (As seen in the picture) in Canada when he finally perfected his own self-propelled combine. Even though he was much later than the pioneers of combine harvesters, his. Thomas' model was unlike any other combine because of it's much lighter and compact design. This made him one of the leading manufacturers of combines during that time. -
The Rotary Design
The rotary design was a very significant advance for the combine that originally relied on centrifugal force in a large cylinder to separate the seeds from the husk. With the introduction of the rotary design, grains could be harvested faster and were handled gentler than the previous method. -
On-Board Electronics
Around 1980, electronics were introduced to the combine harvester that measured the efficiency of it's roles (harvesting, threshing, winnowing etc.). The multitude of different instruments allowed the operators of such machines to get better grain yields by making sure everything was up to speed and working properly. With the addition of the GPS, farmers could plan the most efficient routes on their fields. This was very useful because fields used by combines are very large and hard to navigate. -
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Automation
At this time, inventions such as the GPS started to become more acessable to the public and were starting to be added to the newer combine models. John Deere is one of the leading manufacturers of combines at the time and has a multitude of different equiptment that improves the once simple machines harvesting ability. You can visit their website (http://bit.ly/2sY3nv3) to view their newest models and all of the gadgets they entail!
