Lewis Miller

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source

For the artist by the same name, see Lewis Miller (artist).

Lewis Miller (July 24, 1829 – February 17, 1899) was an Ohio businessman who made a fortune in the late 19th century as inventor of the first combine (harvester-reaper machine) with the blade mounted efficiently in front of the horse rather than pulled behind it. He devoted much of his wealth to charitable causes associated with the Methodist Church, and was the inventor of the "Akron plan" for Sunday schools, a building layout with a central assembly hall surrounded by small classrooms. In 1874, interested in improving the training of Sunday school teachers, he worked with John Heyl Vincent to found what is now the Chautauqua Institution. His daughter Mina married Thomas Alva Edison.

External links

• Biography at National Inventors Hall of Fame

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia © 2001-2006 Wikipedia contributors (Disclaimer)
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Saturday November 24, 2007 at 18:25:23 PST (GMT -0800)
View this article at Wikipedia.org - Edit this article at Wikipedia.org - Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation