John Francis Appleby (1840–1917) was an American inventor who developed a knotting device to bind grain bundles with twine.
Appleby's knotting device was a major landmark in the mechanization of agriculture and aided the development of the western wheat fields of the United States.
[1] When he was just 18, Appleby invented the basic knotting device that would become the foundation for all farm binding machinery, but no one was interested in the idea at the time.
During the war, Appleby invented and patented a manual magazine feed breech loading needle gun.
Primarily on the value of Appleby's twine binder, The Deering Harvester Company (as it became known in 1880) outsold its competitors.