Inventor : Eli Briggs

Uses : traveling threshing machine in 1836 improvement to the design rendered uses of mowing and cleaning grain

Patented : July 12, 1834

One year later on the Saratoga and Schenectady Railroad (one of New York’s very first rail lines) was a most unusual sight. Instead of the customary single rail car being towed along by a horse, the car was moving silently forward with no visible means of propulsion.

Gawkers could hardly believe their eyes, but the secret lay within, where a horse on a treadmill propelled the car forward at the then blazing speed of 15 mph Eli would become known as one of the most innovated inventors of his time .