In 1834 near the Village of Climax, Michigan, Hiram Moore built and put into practical use the first successful grain combined harvester named Thresher which was patented in June 28, 1836.
It used a large rotary screen for the final cleaning of the grain and it could harvest at the rate of 20 acres per day.
At the start, John Hascall, another Kalamazoo pioneer who shared in the patent rights, backed him financially.
Hiram's combine machine successfully cut and threshed grain in Prairie Ronde Township, Kalamazoo County, in 1839 and furnished valuable experimental data upon which other men later built commercially successful machines.
Andrew and Abner Moore (no relation to Hiram Moore) operated combines built according to the inventors' design in Michigan at least until 1853.
Though the machine worked well enough, it never went into large-scale production, and their combine burned in a fire caused when it overheated through improper operation and ignited the crop.
Before the machine was finally abandoned as a failure, Lucius Lyon, Michigan's first U.S. Senator had invested considerable money in it. After watching the machine in operation, Lyon became enthusiastic and he bought Hascall's share of the patent rights.
By the 1870s a number of combine manufacturers had established factories in California, but only farmers with large acreage purchased the machines. Most relied on horses and mules, requiring as many as thirty-six animals to pull the implement and supply the energy to cut, thresh, and clean the grain.
First combine harvester by Hiram Moore& John Hascall
