It changed the world!

You can keep your satellite-guided combine harvesters and robotic milking parlours, according to “1001 Inventions that changed the world” edited by Jack Challoner “The scythe is often ranked among the world’s most significant advances in agricultural implements of the past thousand years.” It allowed workers to stand up, gain a power advantage through leverage and increase daily production from only 0.75 acre to over an acre.  Even more than that, by the late 13th century the addition of a cradle doubled grain harvesting productivity and retained it’s position until the arrival of the mechanical reaper in the 1830’s.