Biographies: B A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Biographies by Topic:  Agriculture, Forestry & Soils | Engineering & Materials Bell, Patrick (1799-1869) was the Scottish clergyman who invented one of the first successful reaping machines. It is probable that later commercially successful machines owed much to his pioneering work. Bell was born in April, 1799, on a farm of which his father was a tenant in the parish of Auchterhouse, a few miles north-west of Dundee, Scotland. He studied for the ministry at St. Andrew's University, and it was there in 1827 that he turned his attention to the construction of a machine which he (like many other inventors) thought would considerably reduce the labor of the grain harvest. Harvesting equipment has progressed most since the beginning of the 19th century when Bell made his important contribution. Since then, methods have advanced from the use of the primitive sickle to the self-propelled combine-harvester. It is said that the grain-harvesters of Egypt in 3000 BC could have been used by most farm workers 4,800 years later without any additional training being needed. It was the invention of the reaper that opened the way to the complete mechanization of the grain harvest, and many attempts were made from the end of the 18th century to cut corn by machine. The way most of these machines performed has been lost to history and it was not until Bell's machine appeared that the record becomes clearer. He started trials in deep secrecy inside a barn on a crop which had been planted by hand, stalk by stalk. In 1828, he and his brother carried out night-time trials which were a success, leading them to exhibit the machine the following year. In the years to 1832 at least 20 machines were produced, 10 of them cutting 130 hectares (320 acres) in Britain and 10 going for export. Six reapers were exhibited at the Great Fair in New York in 1851. That year also saw the Great Exhibition in London, at which reapers by Hussey and McCormick were exhibited, both of them showing similarities to the Bell machines. This was the turning point for mechanical harvesting; mechanization gradually invaded farms and the sickle and scythe were virtually ousted by the 20th century. Bell's reaper was pushed from behind by a pair of horses and the standing cereals were brought on to the reciprocating cutter bar by horizontally revolving rods similar to the reels seen on modern combine harvesters. The cut cereal fell on to an inclined rotating canvas cylinder and was sheaved and stooked by hand. One of Bell's machines was used on his brother's farm for many years until, in 1868, it was bought by the museum of the Patents Office where it was afterwards kept. He did not take out a patent and the design was improved upon and reintroduced as the "Beverly Reaper" in 1857. In recognition of his services to agriculture, Bell was presented with ´,000 and a commemorative plate by the Highland Society, the money being raised mainly from the farmers of Scotland. He also received the honorary degree of LL.D from the University of St. Andrews. Although Bell did not achieve the fame of others such as McCormick, his work was of fundamental value and importance in the successful advancement of agricultural methods to the now well-established mechanized farming used today. Bell died in 1869 in the parish of Carmylie, Arbroath, of which he had been ordained Minister in 1843. from the Hutchinson Dictionary of Scientific Biography © Helicon Publishing Ltd. 1999 All Rights Reserved For Further Study  Agriculture, Forestry & Soils | Engineering & Materials AccessScience Home | About AccessScience | Ordering Information | Free Trial | Did You Know? | Contact Us Privacy Policy Copyright ©2003 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Any use is subject to the Terms of Use. For further information about this site contact OnlineCustomer_Service@mcgraw-hill.com.