Dream Reaper: The Story of an Old-Fashioned Inventor in the High-Tech, High-Stakes World of Modern Agriculture

Front Cover
University of Chicago Press, Jun 8, 1997 - Biography & Autobiography - 300 pages
Dream Reaper follows Mark Underwood, farmer and inventor, and his salesman cousin as they strive to perfect and market Mark's breakthrough invention, the Bi-Rotor combine.

"This intriguing tale weaves together the creativity and ingenuity of an inventor and the hurdles he and his partner face in selling and producing what appears to be an amazingly efficient Bi-Rotor combine."—Science News

"Canine writes with style and flourish. . . Dream Reaper is a riveting journey into America's heartland, where necessity is the mother of invention—and hard work, conviction, and sacrifice are its lifeblood."—People Magazine

"Canine deftly interweaves the story of the two men's struggles with a history of the mechanization of agriculture. This lively account of men working under pressure, improvising repairs and demonstrating the new machine, is also a story of courage that illustrates the barriers facing an independent inventor."—Publishers Weekly

"Craig Canine's Dream Reaper is a delight. It's an important book, rich with history and stories. It brings our most essential industry—farming—into new perspective. Reading it made me want to get out a crop."—Bobbie Ann Mason

A volume in the Sloan Technology Series. The series presents to a general audience highly readable accounts of the development of 20th century technologies and the ways these have shaped and are shaped by society.
 

Contents

The Dream
3
Romance of the Reaper
19
A Gigantic Invention
53
Panning for Gold
71
The Inventor
94
Heredity and Horsepower
125
The Entrepreneur
164
War on Weeds
189
Dressing the Bride
214
The Wedding
256
Epilogue
271
Acknowledgments
276
Sources
279
Index
289
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