Wolseley, Frederick York (1837-1899), an Australian sheep farmer, invented the shearing machine. He experimented with models of his machine from 1867 to 1883, but his first three patents were not successful. In 1883, John Howard, a trained mechanic from the United Kingdom, worked on the third model and greatly improved its performance. Together, Wolseley and Howard formed the Wolseley Shearing Machine Company.