18 JETHRO WOOD; 



see combined with these a mould-board of my 

 form, in the hope it will still advance the per- 

 fection of that machine. But for this I must 

 ask time till I am relieved from the cares 

 which have more right to all my time that 

 is to say, till next spring;" i. e. until after 

 the expiration of his second term as President 

 of the United States. 



The importance of any step in civilization 

 can be understood only in its relations, ante- 

 cedent causes and actual results. 



The Scientific American, which is certainly 

 good authority in such matters, ranks Jethro 

 Wood with Benjamin Franklin, Eli Whitney, 

 Robert Fulton, Charles Goodyear, Samuel B. 

 Morse, Elias Howe, and Cyrus H. McCormick, 

 and these are certainly the great names and this 

 a just classification. Each in his way laid the 

 foundation on which all inventors in his re- 

 spective line have built, and must continue to 

 build, and none of them all came so near per- 



