Bell, Patrick (1799–1869)

Scottish inventor of a reaping machine, developed around 1828.

It was pushed by two horses and used a rotating cylinder of horizontal bars to bend the standing corn on to a reciprocating cutter that was driven off the machine's wheels (in much the same way as on a combine harvester).

Bell was born near Dundee and became a cleric. While still at St Andrews University, he constructed the reaping machine. 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, and later, since Bell did not take out a patent, the design was widely copied and improved on, until mechanical harvesting became the norm.