{"id":6555,"date":"2020-11-24T19:37:08","date_gmt":"2020-11-25T00:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=6555"},"modified":"2020-11-24T19:41:32","modified_gmt":"2020-11-25T00:41:32","slug":"episode-176-part-2-patrick-bell-and-his-reaper-unexpected-good-luck-when-disparate-events-come-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=6555","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 176 PART 2: PATRICK BELL AND HIS REAPER… UNEXPECTED GOOD LUCK WHEN DISPARATE EVENTS COME TOGETHER"},"content":{"rendered":"
EPISODE  176   PATRICK  BELL AND HIS REAPER\u2026UNEXPECTED GOOD LUCK WHEN DISPARATE  EVENTS COME  TOGETHER
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Begin forwarded message:<\/div>\n


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From: <\/b><\/span>ALAN SKEOCH <alan.skeoch@rogers.com<\/a><\/a>>
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Date: <\/b><\/span>November 22, 2020 at 12:41:49 PM EST
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To: <\/b><\/span>Alan Skeoch <alan.skeoch@rogers.com<\/a><\/a>>
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EPISODE 176    PATRICK BELL\u2026INVENTS FIRST REAPING MACHINE\u2026TAUGHT SCHOOL IN FERGUS, C.W.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
Nov. 2020<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\"man<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Patrick Bell was 29 years old when he constructed this grain reaping machine in Scotland  in 1827-8\u2026known to history as the Bell Reaper.<\/div>\n
Few  people remember  him today.  But they should.  Because of  him bread became cheap and people lived longer.<\/div>\n
(Note:  Bell is  no longer considered the principal inventor)<\/div>\n


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The  wheat is ready for harvest.  Today the  job of  harvesting is done by huge combine harvesters\u2026great self propelled  machines<\/div>\n
that cut the grain with reciprocating triangular blades.  All the elements of these modern machines occurred to young Patrick Bell<\/div>\n
when  he  built his reaper.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
CHEAP BREAD FOR EVERYONE<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
I have  had more than my share  of \u2018unexpected good luck\u2019 in my life.   Sometimes I did<\/div>\n
not see  the good luck when it happened. A major piece of good luck for me began when<\/div>\n
Uncle Norman had a rock smash the master cyulliNder  of his 1953 Massey Harris combine<\/div>\n
harvester.   This event was a major disaster for Uncle Norman\u2026enough of a disaster for<\/div>\n
him to blaspheme and give  the rock  a baptismal  name\u2026i.e. \u201cGoddamn Rock”<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

Then, much later another piece  of unexpected good luck came when my interest in<\/p><\/div>\n

machine design and  function led me back to the University of Toronto as a mature<\/div>\n
graduate student.  Luck and the kindness of the Toronto Board of Education (Sabbatical leave) gave me<\/div>\n
the chance to delve deeply into the way agricultural machines changed human society<\/div>\n
in he 19th century.    <\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
The end result was a 300 page thesis, \u2018Technology and Change – 1850 to 1891\u201d (short form title)<\/div>\n
My love for old machines led us far and wide.  I say \u2018us\u2019 because Marjorie and our sons Kevin and<\/div>\n
Andrew were very much a part of this grand adventure.  (Coopeerstown, N.Y.,  Dearborn, Michigan, London (England)<\/div>\n
Californin, NewZealand, Australia, Ireland, Scotland)<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
THE PHONE CALL<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Another component came in the form of a strange phone call.<\/div>\n
\n

<\/div>\n
\u201cRing, Ring, Ring!”<\/div>\n
\u201cMarjorie, can you answer the phone?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cYes\u2026yes\u2026he is  here.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAlan, the call is for you.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWho is it?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSome bank executive from the Mellon bank in New York.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cYou must be kidding.,\u201d <\/div>\n
\u201cNo, that\u2019s what  he said\u2026\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHello,\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAre you Alan Skeoch?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cI am,  how can  I help you?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cDid you write a learned paper on machine technology in the 19th century?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cI did\u2026but your the first person to say I wrote a \u2018Learned  paper\u2019.  What\u2019s up?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWe are searching  for someone in Canada to repair\u2026reconstruct\u2026the reaper<\/div>\n
built by  Cyrus McCormick in 1831.   We have located what remains of the machine\u2026bought<\/div>\n
it from a retired farmer living near Chatham, Ontario.  Would you be interested  in<\/div>\n
assuming responsibility for rebuilding the machine\u2026some parts  are missing\u2026and<\/div>\n
then sending it air freight to a museum in Northern Ireland where McCoirmick was born.  We will pay whatever<\/div>\n
seems reasonable.\u201d<\/div>\n
Is this a joke?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNo, we are serious.  You were suggested by Mr. Cousins, Director of the Dearborn Museum near Detroit.\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
My thoughts began to race.   This  guy is  serious.  He must think I am some kind  of<\/div>\n
mechanical engineer who owns a machine  shop.   What a great chance!<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\u201cYes, I will take the job.  Where is the Reaper?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cStill sitting in a barn near Chatham.  Can you pick it up<\/div>\n
and do the restoration?<\/div>\n
\u201cSure,\u201d  I said, bluffing somewhat.<\/div>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s wonderful.  Have you any idea of the costs?\u201d<\/div>\n
No idea at all\u2026I will give you and estimate after I see the Reaper<\/div>\n
and get back here in Mississauga.\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
There are three great names in the 19th century history of  mechanical reaping machines.  One of<\/div>\n
them is Cyrus  McCormick, who became  a classic entrepreneur creating a huge industrial corporation.  His beginning<\/div>\n
was, however, humble.    Another was a very strange man named Obed  Hussey.   And the third<\/div>\n
is Patrick  Bell\/.  Three men who  changed the world  in which they lived.  Three men whose  inventions<\/div>\n
made a better world for you and  me.  Three men who have been forgotten.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
By a quirk of fate I was on their trail.  Well, the trail of two of them.  The  third,  Obed  Hussy, could have been<\/div>\n
a great man if he had been given the chance.   He never really got the ‘unexpected good luck\u2019 that I had.<\/div>\n
That phone  call from the Mellon bank wanted me to reanimate the life  of Cyrus McCormick.  I could do that<\/div>\n
I suppose.  He did not live in a vacuum however. His life was intertwined with the life of Rev. Patrick Bell, a Scottish Protestant minister.   <\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
There is a  long line of  causes and effect that led from Bell and  McCormickBoth McCormick to the Skeoch farm outside Fergus where Uncle  Norman\u2019s <\/div>\n
 Massey  Harris combine rested with a rock in its master cylinder.<\/div>\n
Skeoch  connectons may seem  laboured to readers but they were very much alive to me..   Patrick Bell  comes  first.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
MAN OF THE CLOTH<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
PATRICK BELL (1799 – 1869, born Auchterhouse, Angus, Scotland<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Patrick Bell was a farmers’  son born in Scotland.  He had a way with mechanical<\/div>\n
things and  must have thought: \u201cThere has to be a better way of harvesting grain\u2026barley, wheat and oats.\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
The harvesting of grains was a monumental task prior to the  reapers  invented  by  Bell, Hussey and  McCormick.<\/div>\n
Thousands of  men and women were hired to cut and bundle sheaves of  grain using hand tools most important of<\/div>\n
which was the cradle scythe\u2026really a long knife with a basket attached.  Men  did the cradling.  Women and children<\/div>\n
bound the cut grain into sheaves.  The sheaves were pitched onto wagons and  hauled to threshing floors and pommelled<\/div>\n
with hand held  flails to knock the grain loose after which the grain was winnowed  by being pitched in the air to let wind<\/div>\n
blow the chaff free.  It was laborious.  And  much grain was lost in the process.<\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
This threshing machine nocked the heads of the wheat stalks \u2026 an improvement over the flail<\/div>\n
but still labour intensive…<\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n
After the  harvesting\u2026hit and miss harvesting. The grain fields were open to the gleaners\u2026farm workers, villagers, poor<\/div>\n
peasants.  The gleaners rescued as much fallen  grain as they could.  With the gleaners came flocks of seed eating birds<\/div>\n
also gleaning.  In the evenings small creatures slipped through the fields, also gleaning.  Harvesting  was a wasteful<\/div>\n
and laborious task prior to the invention of  Patrick Bell\u2019s reaper.<\/div>\n

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\"man<\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
This  engraving of the Bell Reaping machine invented and constructed  by Patrick Bell in 1827 and first used on his father\u2019s farm in September 1828.<\/div>\n
It worked so well that young Patrick  Bell was awarded  a 50 pound grant from the Scottish  Highland Society..   The  real machine was much heavier than this depiction.  How do I know?  <\/div>\n
Patrick  Bell\u2019s prototype reaper continued to be used on his brother\u2019s farm until l870 when  it was purchased by the Science  Museum in London, England.   Marjorie and i flew to  London to marvel<\/div>\n
at the machine.  Today,  in November 2020,  the large lumbering machine has been moved into storage but someday it<\/div>\n
will be put back on display we hope.  <\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
The astrobiologist, Chris Impey,  in his book The Living Cosmos expressed our feelings best when he wrote  \u201cNo other species has created machines to extend<\/div>\n
the senses and do its bidding.  No other species invented art or mathematics.\u201d  The Bell reaper blends  art and mathematics into a machine that has extended<\/div>\n
the lifespan of millions of people improved copies, called combine harvesters,  are working today..  Art and Mechanics\u2026art and mathematics… apt description of the Bell Reaper!<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Some readers  might be interested  in the elements of the Bell Reaper.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
1)  The Bell reaper was  pushed by a team of horses.<\/div>\n
2)  At the front of the machine there is a reel that gently pushed<\/div>\n
the standing grain towards the cutter bar which is  at ground level<\/div>\n
3) The cutter bar holds a  series of reciprocating blades that cut<\/div>\n
the grain stalks.   Really a  linked line  of grass  clippers\u2026that was<\/div>\n
Bell\u2019s idea.   \u201cWhy can\u2019t I build a machine with mechanically driven <\/div>\n
grass  clippers?\u201d, he must have thought.<\/div>\n
4) There are two large drive wheels \u2026  bull wheels \u2026that are linked<\/div>\n
to a bull gear that makes  the clipper do their snipping as long as<\/div>\n
the horses  provide the power.<\/div>\n
5) There is a movable looped \u2018apron\u2019 upon which the sheared grain falls<\/div>\n
and  is moved to the side of the  reaper where it can  be bound<\/div>\n
into sheaves.   The horses do not tread  on the cut grain.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
(Note John Common had  a similar idea much earlier in 1812.  No invention<\/div>\n
comes  from nothing\u2026there are stepping stones)<\/div>\n

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This  is the prototype of the Bell Reaper.  What is  most obvious?   To me it isThe large bull wheels which drive<\/div>\n
the bevelled Bull Gear that makes cutter bar move at right angle to the direction of movement \u2026 cutter bar acted <\/div>\n
 like a  bunch  of hand shears joined together..  <\/div>\n
    Readers do not need  to be engineers<\/div>\n
to get drawn into this story.  Remember I am an historian\u2026not a mechanical  engineer.  Worse still, I am left<\/div>\n
handed and therefore find machines  made by those of you in the 90% majority goddamn awkward.  Try <\/div>\n
cutting open an envelope with your left hand  using right handed  scissors and  you will get an inkling<\/div>\n
as to the mechanical handicaps faced  by left handers.   This story is not reserved for mechanics.  It is<\/div>\n
best understood by dreamers\u2026people with imagination.<\/div>\n

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SERENDIPITY<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Much of this story has chunks of SERENDIPITY.   Meaning what?  Meaning that there a number<\/div>\n
of wonderful elements that have com together without me looking for them\u2026\u2019unexpected good luck’<\/div>\n
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  1. \n
    \n
    \n
    (Serendipity is a noun, coined in the middle of the 18th century by author Horace Walpole (he took it from the Persian fairy tale The Three Princes of Serendip). The adjective form is serendipitous, and the adverb is serendipitously. A serendipitist is “one who finds valuable or agreeable things not sought for.\u201d)  Persia is  now Iran. <\/div>\n

    <\/div>\n
    This story has a lot of unexpected elements  that came together and  changed our lives.   First was  the<\/div>\n
    \u2018goddamn\u2019 rock in the master  cylinder of Uncle Norman\u2019s Massey Harris combine harvester.  That happened<\/div>\n
    on the Skeoch farm located on the south west corner of the town of Fergus, Ontario ( called  Upper Canada when<\/div>\n
    the little  Skeoch boys, James and  John, arrived  in 1846).<\/div>\n

    <\/div>\n
         In 1851, Patrick Bell left Scotland to teach school in Fergus.   The Bell papers have<\/div>\n
    yet to be published.  He kept a  record of his life in Upper Canada… records that have<\/div>\n
    yet to be turned into a book although someone in the 1990\u2019s<\/div>\n
    is supposed to be doing so\u2026or was doing so thirty year ago.<\/div>\n

    <\/div>\n
    Did Patrick Bell likely notice the Skeoch boys on the streets of Fergus.  Did he teach  them?  Unlikely<\/div>\n
    because education was reserved for the toffs of the town.  Then again, Scots  have always highly valued  education.<\/div>\n
    Maybe Patrick  Bell and  the Skeoch boys  did  come together but that is  pure speculation.  By 1851 the Skeoch<\/div>\n
    boys were teen agers.  Busy farmers sons.  No time for book learning.<\/div>\n

    <\/div>\n
    But just to think they came that close to each other… serendipity.    <\/div>\n
    <\/div>\n

    <\/div>\n

    <\/div>\n
    <\/div>\n
    The Bell Reaper and the modern Combine Harvester<\/div>\n

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    <\/div>\n

    <\/div>\n

    <\/div>\n
    <\/div>\n

    <\/div>\n

    <\/div>\n
    Patrick Bell did not become a farmer.  Nor did he become a mechanical engineer.  Nor did he become an inventor<\/div>\n
    beyond his Bell Reaper.  Patrick  Bell became a Christian minister in the Church of  Scotland.   No longer<\/div>\n
     tinkering with bull gears and  bull wheels  and reciprocating garden shears.   And  isn\u2019t it serendipitous<\/div>\n
    that Patrick Bell came to Fergus to teach school in 1851?   That is really weird.<\/div>\n

    <\/div>\n

    <\/div>\n
    <\/div>\n

    <\/div>\n
    The Bell Reaper on dislay at the Science Museum in London, England.  (Now removed to storage)<\/div>\n

    <\/div>\n
    BELL REFUSED TO PATENT HIS INVENTION<\/div>\n

    <\/div>\n
    Patrick Bell was very different from the  American inventor Cyrus McCormick.  How?  Bell refused to<\/div>\n
    patent his inventor.  He refused to make money from the invention of a machine that would make<\/div>\n
    life easier for human beings around the world.  He encouraged  others to improve his machine which<\/div>\n
    they did and  are continuing to do right now.  Just look at those giants of the harvest fields today.<\/div>\n
    Direct descendants of a machine imagined  and built by a 27 year old farm boy, future Christian minister, future<\/div>\n
    school teacher, in the barn on the Bell farm in Scotland.<\/div>\n

    <\/div>\n
    WHAT DOES THIS STORY HAVE TO DO WITH THE CALL FROM THE MELLON BANK OF NEW YORK?<\/div>\n

    <\/div>\n
    Remember, When  I answered the phone call and accepted the project to rebuild a <\/div>\n
    a  McCormick Reaper I had never heard of  Patrick  Bell.  To fully understand<\/div>\n
    the projects I  undertook to research the history of reaping.  Seemed a good<\/div>\n
    idea to do so.  And that led me to Patrick Bell.  Serendipity at work.  <\/div>\n

    <\/div>\n

    <\/div>\n
    The \u2018goddamn rock\u2019 in Uncle Norman\u2019s combine set off ripples like a rock thrown in an Ontario pond.<\/div>\n
    On March 1, 1976, my M.A. thesis was completed.  Three hundred pages under the title \u201cTechnology and Change<\/div>\n
    in 19th century Ontario Agriculture, 1850 to 1891.  A massive tome of 300 plus pages.  I think it was too much<\/div>\n
    for my history professor Dr. J. M. S.  Careless to read.   In  the school year, 1975-6, I was  granted a year long<\/div>\n
    sabbatical leave by the Toronto Board of Education to put my love  affair with machines together.  Copies of<\/div>\n
    the thesis are  held by the New York Sate Historical  Society in Cooperstown, and  Black Creek Pioneer Village<\/div>\n
    in North York courtesy of a request from Jim Hunter, collections department.<\/div>\n

    <\/div>\n
    WHAT A  JOY <\/div>\n

    <\/div>\n
    My work overlapped  into three University of Toronto departments.  First was the history department, then<\/div>\n
    the Fine  Arts Department chaired by Dr. Webster and  finally the Engineering Department \u2026then Bruce Sinclair, the School of<\/div>\n
    Practical Science\u2026S.P.S.   I still have a good  feeling about that  engineering department and the book<\/div>\n
    \u2018Let use Honest and Modest\u2019 by Bruce Sinclair and  others.  That was  46 years  ago..  The SPS members were so <\/div>\n
    incredibly helpful and actually interested in what I was trying to accomplish.  At some point<\/div>\n
    a U.  of T. history professor  asked  how long I expected to take.  \u201cSeven months\u201d, I answered.  His response was<\/div>\n
    a furrowed brow.  Scepticism.  I soon understood why the furrowed brow. There was a big bump in the road.<\/div>\n

    <\/div>\n
    THE BUMP IN THE ROAD<\/div>\n

    <\/div>\n
    There was one tricky side to this sabbatical.  In 1976 an M.A.  graduate student was expected to have reading level<\/div>\n
    familiarity with French.  We were tested.  I say \u2018we\u2019 because there were many  fellow graduate students.  I was two decades older than all of them.  <\/div>\n
     But accepted. Nice feeling.  The French  requirement, however,  was a  hurdle that most had trouble leaping <\/div>\n
     over myself included.  My  first score  was \u2018zero\u2019 which must sound  terrible.  In fact it was the mid  point<\/div>\n
    between a score  of  -7 and  +7.  Most, perhaps all, of my fellow grad  students scored the same or less.  At least<\/div>\n
    I had high  school French which  most of them did not.  My friends  at Parkdale took great joy in <\/div>\n
    my \u2018Zero\u201d.   After a lot of work I managed to get +3 on the second effort.  That was a  pass. How in hell<\/div>\n
    most of the kids  I was with could be expected to translate a Syrian  script in French I failed<\/div>\n
    to understand.   Soon afterward that French hurdle for graduate students was dropped.  <\/div>\n

    <\/div>\n
    Why  tell you this?  Because the hurdle was way too high and failure  to clear it<\/div>\n
    led  to a  very amusing incident in my life.  Perhaps offensive to purists.  On my second<\/div>\n
    attempt at the reading  level in French we lined up at the  exam building on Queens Park Circle.<\/div>\n
    One of our student leaders came over and said, \u201cAl, you are number 4.\u201dwhich  meant nothing to me.<\/div>\n
    \u201cWe\u2019ll all meet for s beer after the exam.\u201d  Now that was fine by me.  Nice to be accepted by<\/div>\n
    kids twenty years younger than i was.  The exam was hard but I soldiered my way through it.<\/div>\n
    Then we went for a beer\u2026.about ten of us.<\/div>\n
    \u201cOK, Number 1, give me your sentence.\u201d<\/div>\n
    \u201cAnd now Number 2\u2026\u201d<\/div>\n
    \u201cNumber 3\u2026\u201d<\/div>\n
    \u201cAnd  you, Al, what was the fourth sentence.\u201d<\/div>\n
    I failed to understand\u2026did not know I was supposed to memorize the fourth sentence. The <\/div>\n
    plan was to memorize the whole exam then Parrot it back  to our leader<\/div>\n
    who would  get the exam translated  by someone that actually knew French.<\/div>\n
    Then they would be ready for Test attempt Number Three.   The plan was<\/div>\n
    both funny and tragic.  I did  not believe the test would be the same paragraphs<\/div>\n
    for Test Number 3.   So the whole effort was tragic.  These kids, most of them,<\/div>\n
    had never even taken Gr. Nine French.   Eventually the U. of  T. big shots must<\/div>\n
    have realized that fact and dropped the need  for reading level in a second  language.<\/div>\n
    Although  I failed my young friends I was flattered to be considered part of the<\/div>\n
    conspiracy.  We had a few laughs with our  beer that afternoon.  I credit my success<\/div>\n
    with the French requirement to Madam  Schroeder at Humberside C.I. who kept me<\/div>\n
    in the front seat because I made up words that did  not exist.  She was  a great teacher.<\/div>\n
    I will always be in her debt.<\/div>\n

    <\/div>\n
    END OF PART TWO:   REAPING \u2026 <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
  2. \n
    <\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n
    Notes and Postscript<\/div>\n

    <\/div>\n
    -Note that Patrick  Bell is no longer credited  exclusively with the invention of the reaping machine<\/div>\n

    <\/div>\n

    <\/div>\n
    \n
    \n

    \n
    Papers of Reverend Patrick Bell (c 1799 – 1869)<\/div>\n<\/h1>\n
    \n
    <\/span>Archive Collection<\/div>\n