20 



THE STORY OF BREAD 



The years have a habit of forgetting those who 

 try — and fail. Somehow, we remember only the 

 successful. So we shall never know just how many 

 tried to think of a reaper, or how few actually 

 worked at building one. 



But as the world grew older, the cry for bread 

 grew louder. 



Some sort of reaper was used in Gaul, and Palla- 

 dius, four centuries later, described a similar ma- 

 chine. But they fell into disuse and disappeared. 



In the twenty-second year of his vigor — 1831, to 

 be exact — McCormick pushed his first reaper out of 

 the blacksmith shop on his father's farm in Virginia. 

 Previous to this eventful year, there had been 

 granted for a similar kind of machine forty-six 

 patents — twenty-three in England and twenty-three 

 in the United States. From this record it is seen 

 that the entire credit for the reaper goes to the 

 English speaking people. 



You know there are two kinds of theorists, just as 

 there are two kinds of people, and other odd things. 

 One knows and does, and the other thinks he knows 

 and doesn't do. Parlor discussions are all very 

 well — in the parlor. There is not a particle of 

 doubt but that many of the forty-six reapers worked 

 well in the shop. But a reaper is for use in a field. 

 Hence, the long wait for number forty-seven. 



A preacher invented one of the forty-six, a quaker 

 another, and an actor, another. McCormick was a 



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