Joseph Oppenheim

Oppenheim obtained a liberal education at universities in Bonn, Germany, and Innsbruck, Austria,[3] and upon graduation from college at the age of 20 he immigrated to the United States.

[5] Oppenheim was "an accomplished musician, specializing in piano and pipe organ, ... a remarkable scholar, conversant with four languages, well read in literature, and an excellent speaker.

[7] In the 1890s, Oppenheim was a schoolmaster in the one-room country schoolhouse in Maria Stein, the town where John M. Kramer was building a "manure unloader" based on a patent in his name but claimed to be jointly owned by him, Fred Heckman and Henry Synck.

[9] The unloader that Kramer built used a drag chain at the bottom of the wagon to pull the load of manure to the rear where it was shredded by a pair of beaters and deposited directly behind the machine, but with very little spreading to the sides.

[10] As a result, farmers still had to take the time-consuming step of heading into the fields with peg-tooth drags or similar implements to spread the manure in order to prevent burning the soil.

[11] As a schoolmaster, Oppenheim was concerned that the older boys often missed class at certain times of the year to stay home and work on the farm, usually loading and spreading manure.

"[20] On October 18, 1899, Oppenheim broke ground for a small shop in Maria Stein, Ohio, where he could produce his new manure spreader, incorporating the "widespread" paddle device in addition to two beaters.

[24] Neighbors around the town of Maria Stein started referring to the widespread manure spreaders as "Oppenheim's new idea" and Joseph adopted this as the name for the business.

[26] Oppenheim did not live long enough to realize any financial reward, for he died on November 24, 1901, as one of the victims of typhoid fever that struck the small village.

[41] Ten years later, in October 1945, Joseph Oppenheim's heirs, all of whom worked from the beginning in sales and production,[42] sold their controlling interest in New Idea to AVCO.

[45] On December 8, 1999, nearly 100 years after Joseph Oppenheim patented his invention, AGCO announced that it would close the New Idea manufacturing facilities in Coldwater, Ohio because "reduced demand for agricultural equipment" precluded it from remaining competitive.