Can't imagine why anyone says farming is dangerous...

tirediron · Sep 9, 2014

Harvesting wheat for our club's annual fall fair threshing demonstration using our <1920 McCormick-Deering binder towed by our 1948 Ford 8N. If you check out the close-up around the 40 second mark, you can see just how many unprotected gears and chains are whirring around...

SpikeyJohnson · Sep 9, 2014

I love it when people don't understand some of the dangers involved with working around anything mechanical. It can be so easy to lose a finger or toe or cause serious burns. One day I stuck my finger in a computer fan to see if it was running... Bad choice, even computer fans can get going fast and it almost pulled my finger nail up. That one hurt for a while.

KmH · Sep 9, 2014

Farming is one of the top 10 most dangerous jobs in the USA.

America's 10 Deadliest Jobs - Forbes
The 10 Deadliest Jobs:
1. Logging workers
2. Fishers and related fishing workers
3. Aircraft pilot and flight engineers
4. Roofers
5. Structural iron and steel workers
6. Refuse and recyclable material collectors
7. Electrical power-line installers and repairers
8. Drivers/sales workers and truck drivers
9. Farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural managers
10. Construction laborers

Matthew Edel, the blacksmith that owned the preserved, historic blacksmith shop I interpret history at during the summer, invented and patented a grain reaper-binder in 1876.
Charles Withington invented the first binder in 1872.
Like the Withington binder, Matthew Edel's binder used wire.

There was controversy over using wire for binding based on fears pieces of wire would wind up in stock feed.
About the same time Matthew Edel patented his device William Deering invented and patented a binder that used twine and a twine knotter invented in 1858 by John Appleby.

Though Matthew Edel was able to put together a group of investors from the area around Effingham, Illinois willing to back the manufacture his invention, the Deering twine binder won out and Matthew Edel's invention was a financial failure.

It took a move to the Iowa City, Iowa area and some years working for others as a blacksmith for Matthew Edel to recover financially.
Matthew moved to central Iowa in 1883 and started again with his own blacksmith shop in a new town on a new line extension of the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul railroad.

In 1902 the Deering Harvester Company merged with the McCormick Harvester Company and 3 other smaller companies all of which became the International Harvester Company.

Matthew Edel went on to coming up with several other patented inventions, none of them financial successes but he did make a little money on them beyond his costs to secure his patents.

State Historical Society of Iowa

tirediron · Sep 9, 2014

SpikeyJohnson said:
I love it when people don't understand some of the dangers involved with working around anything mechanical. It can be so easy to lose a finger or toe or cause serious burns. One day I stuck my finger in a computer fan to see if it was running... Bad choice, even computer fans can get going fast and it almost pulled my finger nail up. That one hurt for a while.

Yep... I just about lost a finger that day; I wasn't paying attention, and had my finger resting between the knife and guide of the sickle-bar and the other fellow was turning it over to make sure the canvases were tight. If the reel hadn't hit my head and made me move... *slice*.