HIS LIFE AND WORK 



was thrust from one discouragement to another 

 until two years later he met McCormick. 



It is a most interesting fact, and certainly 

 not an accidental one, that the group of noted 

 inventors who together produced the self- 

 binder all appeared from the region south 

 of Madison, which had been so aroused by 

 the eloquence of "Pump" Carpenter. Besides 

 C. B. Withington, there were Sylvanus D. 

 Locke, also of Janesville, H. A. Holmes, of 

 Beloit, John F. Appleby, of Mazomanie, W. 

 W. Burson, Jacob Behel, George H. Spauld- 

 ing, and Marquis L. Gorham, of Rockford. 



Until 1880, all went well with McCormick 

 and the Withington self-binder. Apparently, 

 the process of invention had ceased. The 

 Reaper had become of age. This miraculous 

 wire-twisting machine w r as working everywhere 

 with clock-like precision, and was believed to 

 be the best that human ingenuity could devise. 

 Then, like a bolt of lightning from a blue sky, 

 came the news that William Deering had made 

 and sold 3,000 twine self-binders, and that the 

 farmers had all at once become prejudiced 



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