{{Short description|Scottish minister and inventor (1799–1869)}} {{for|the Episcopal priest|Patrick W. Bell}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} '''Patrick Bell''' (12 May 1799 – 22 April 1869) was a Church of Scotland minister and inventor.
==Biography== Born in the rural parish of Auchterhouse in Angus, Scotland, into a farming family, Bell chose to study divinity at the University of St Andrews. He was Carmyllie parish minister from 1843 until his death.
==The Reaping Machine== thumb|upright=1.5|alt=man guiding two horses pushing machine |{{center|1851 illustration showing two horses pushing a Bell reaper}} Bell invented the reaping machine while working on his father's farm. His interest in mechanics led him to work on a horse powered mechanical reaper for speeding up the harvest. In 1828 his machine was used with success on his father's farm and others in the district.
This reaping machine used a revolving 12 vane reel to pull the crop over the cutting knife, that was made from triangular reciprocating blades over fixed triangular blades. A canvas conveyor moved the grain and stalks to the side in a windrow. This machine was pushed by livestock and ran on 2 wheels.<ref>{{cite book |title= Inventions in the century |author= William H. Doolittle |author-link= William H. Doolittle |year= 1903 |publisher= W. & R. Chambers |location= London |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=9xclAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA36 }}</ref>
Bell never sought a patent for his reaping machine. Being a man of God, he believed his invention should benefit all mankind. Therefore, he never made any financial gain from its success throughout the world.
On May 3, 1831, a patent was issued in the United States to William Manning for the reaper of essentially the same design. On December 31, 1833, a similar cutter patent was issued to Obed Hussey. A vibrating cutter was patented by Cyrus McCormick on June 21, 1834. McCormick with his brothers mass-produced the machines and developed what became the International Harvester Company.<ref>{{Cite book |author= George Iles |year = 1912 |edition= 2nd |title = Leading American Inventors |place =New York |publisher = Henry Holt and Company| url = https://archive.org/details/leadingamericani00ilesrich |pages=276–314 |chapter= Cyrus H. McCormick }}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *http://www.auchterhouse.com/history/pbell.htm {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120216013929/http://www.auchterhouse.com/history/pbell.htm |date=16 February 2012 }} *https://web.archive.org/web/20081006144523/http://www.angus.gov.uk/history/features/people/patrickbell.htm *http://www.cornways.de/hi_combine.html *http://nms.scran.ac.uk/database/record.php?scache=5cryr2dbs0&searchdb=scran&usi=000-100-044-206-C
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bell, Patrick}} Category:1799 births Category:1869 deaths Category:19th-century ministers of the Church of Scotland Category:19th-century Scottish Presbyterian ministers Category:Scottish inventors