Model (scale 1:6) of the original reaping machine built in 1831 by Cyrus H. McCormick.

Model (scale 1:6) of the original reaping machine built and demonstrated in 1831 by Cyrus H. McCormick. The model is one of a number displayed at the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1900 by the McCormick Harvesting Machine Co . It represents Cyrus McCormick's first machine as demonstrated at Steele's Farm, Virginia U.S.A. in July 1831. Between 1831-1839, some improvements were made until, in 1840, the first McCormick reapers were made available for purchase. By 1850, McCormicks were very successful in this highly competitive field, and exhibited their latest reaper at the Great Exhibition of 1851. In that same year, as a result of the Exhibition, various contemporary reapers were tried against one another to see which performed best, thus the McCormick competed directly with a commercially produced version of Bell's machine, amongst others. The McCormick did well against them all. The 1831 McCormick represents the beginnings of the first commercially successful reaper.