When we think of great inventions, most of us tend to picture what might be called the celebrity inventions; the iconic, world-changing, superstar inventions like the printing press, the telephone, the light bulb, the flush toilet.
Some people became famous because of their inventions. Some even became rich.
A few achieved fame and fortune they didn’t entirely deserve. Henry Ford got the idea for the assembly line from Ransom E. Olds. Thomas Edison was but one in a long line of men who worked on the development of the light bulb, and according to some historians he hijacked credit for the invention of the movie camera. Sometimes the accolades (and the financial rewards) went to the first person to get to the patent office. Some inventors came up with something big, and then missed out on cashing in altogether. One of those was Reverend Patrick Bell of Fergus.
Patrick Bell was born on a farm near Angus, Scotland, in 1799. He attended the University of St. Andrews in Fife, where he studied divinity, mathematics and physics. While he was at university, he began to explore the idea of a machine that would help with the labour-intensive task of harvesting grain.
It was an era in which creative thinkers contributed to the agricultural revolution with inventions that would increase crop yields while (ideally) reducing labour. Among them were Jethro Tull of England, inventor of the seed drill; Michel Lullin de Chateauvieux of Switzerland, inventor of the drill plow; and Jethro Wood of the United States, inventor of the iron moldboard plow.
When Bell was growing up on his parents’ farm, grain was still harvested by the back-breaking use of hand scythes. Harvesters had to spend long hours bent over. Even though Bell’s goal was to be an ordained minister in the Church of Scotland, he also had a great interest in mechanics.
One summer evening, while walking on the farm property, he saw a pair of pruning shears that someone had left stuck in a hedge. The idea came to him that if shears could be operated by hand, why not by mechanical means? He experimented and then finally built a model of a machine that would cut stalks of wheat. It had a revolving 12-vane reel that pulled the crop over the cutting knife which consisted of triangular reciprocating blades and fixed triangular blades. The grain and stalks were carried to the side on a conveyor. The two-wheeled machine could be pushed by a draught animal.
Bell did his work secretly in a barn. The only other person who knew of Bell’s invention was his younger brother. A blacksmith who made the metal parts didn’t know exactly what they were for.
One night in 1828 Bell and his brother tested the new machine; again, in secrecy. The story of what happened that eventful night in Scotland would not be told for many years, and when it was documented, it was for readers in the pioneer community of Fergus, Ontario. In that account, Bell said he decided to try his “reaper” before the crop was perfectly ripe.
“A younger brother of mine and myself resolved to have a quiet and unobserved start by ourselves. Accordingly, about eleven o’clock at night on a dark autumn evening, when every man, woman and child were in their beds, the machine was quietly taken from its quarters and the good horse, Jock, was yoked to it, and we wended our way through a field of lea (pasture) to one of standing wheat – my brother and I meanwhile speaking to one another in whispers. We reached our destination and the machine was put in position right at the end of a ridge. My duty was to look ahead and my brother’s was to guide the horse. I gave the word of command and the implement went … the machine moved forward and now was all right. The wheat was lying by the side of the machine as prettily as any that has been cut since. After some pardonable congratulations, we moved the machine back to its old quarters as quickly and quietly as possible.”
Bell used the reaper on his family’s farm and the farms of some neighbours, but there is no known record that he ever tried to take out a patent on it. As a Christian minister, he believed his invention should benefit all of mankind and not be a source of wealth for himself. Two universities granted him honorary degrees in recognition of his achievement, and the Highland Society presented him with a gift of silver plate and a cash honorarium of a thousand pounds – a substantial amount of money, but only a fraction of what he could have made from his revolutionary machine.
In 1833 Bell came to Upper Canada with Adam Fergusson and James Webster, the founders of Fergus. He was a bush farmer and a preacher, as well as being a tutor to Fergusson’s children. When Webster took a trip back to Scotland in 1837, Bell went with him and stayed there, eventually becoming a parish minister in Carmyllie. He died there in 1869.
Bell was in Fergus for only four years, but his time there had an impact on his legacy as an inventor. He had brought a model of his reaper with him from Scotland, and when he went back to the old country, he left the model with the Fergus Library. When the Mechanics’ Institute was formed, the model was displayed there on a table. Unfortunately, it was stolen.
Of greater importance to posterity, Bell wrote the story of his invention and shared it with friends. Shortly after his death, one of those friends passed the account on to the Fergus News-Record. Thus, it is on record that in 1828 Patrick Bell made a reaping machine. But since he did not seek a patent, the field was open to others.
Between 1831 and 1834, three other men: William Manning, Obed Hussey and Cyrus McCormick, all Americans, took out patents on reaping machines that were similar in many ways to Bell’s, although they were probably unaware of his device. The most successful of them was McCormick, and he has been credited as the inventor of the mechanical reaper.
However, the truth is known in Fergus.
