14 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. CHAP.II. 



involves more complex motions and adjustments, so that 

 the perfection it has so quickly attained is very remarka- 

 ble. If we consider that about sixty separate types, in- 

 cluding small letters, capitals, spaces, stops, etc., have to 

 be so arranged and so connected as to be brought in any 

 order whatever to a definite position, so as to form the 

 successive letters and spaces in lines of printed charac- 

 ters and then, being properly inked, must be brought 

 into contact with the paper so as to produce a clear im- 

 pression, and that all the motions of the machinery re- 

 quired must be the result of a single pressure on a key 

 for each letter, following one another as rapidly as 

 possible, we shall have some idea of the difficulties which 

 have had to be overcome. Yet, so great are the re- 

 sources of modern mechanism, and the ingenuity of our 

 mechanists, that the required result has been attained 

 in many different ways, so that we may now choose 

 between half a dozen forms of typewriters, no one 

 of which seems to be very markedly superior to the 

 rest. 



More important, perhaps, to mankind generally, are 

 the harvesting machines, which render it possible to 

 utilize one or two fine days to secure a harvest. Reap- 

 ing machines have long been used in this country, and 

 they were followed by combined reapers and binders, 

 which left the crop ready for carting to the barn. But 

 this, when the distance was great, did not save the grain 

 from injury by wet, besides requiring much labor and a 

 careful process of stacking to preserve it. In America 

 a harvesting machine has been brought to perfection, 

 which not only reaps the grain, but threshes it, winnows 

 it, and delivers it into sacks ready for the granary or the 



