REAPING MACHINES. 43 1 



States of America ; and this circumstance renders it highly 

 probable that they became the models from which the 

 numerous inventions of the American reapers have since 

 sprung. 



It is gratifying to be able to record that a fitting 

 acknowledgment of the service rendered to agriculture 

 was made to Mr Bell. The acknowledgment was late, 

 but it was not too late, though it came forty years after the 

 prize accorded to his invention by the Society. In 1868, 

 at the close of a general meeting of the Society held at 

 Edinburgh on the 15th January, Mr Bell was presented with 

 a sum of a thousand pounds. The late Marquis of Tweed- 

 dale presided. Mr Scot-Skirving, Camptown, convener 

 of the committee for the testimonial, stated that the presen- 

 tation consisted of a gift of money and a piece of silver 

 plate, bearing an inscription that it was presented to Mr 

 Bell ' by a large number of his countrymen in token of their 

 appreciation of his pre-eminent services as the inventor of 

 the first efficient reaping machine.' Mr Scot-Skirving said 

 that Mr Bell had stated that on coming home one day from 

 seeing his father's reapers at work on the farm of Inch- 

 michael, a strong wish seized him to invent something to 

 lighten the labour of his countrymen. His eye lighting on 

 a pair of garden shears hanging near, suggested to him the 

 first idea of clipping corn by machinery. The Marquis of 

 Tweeddale said he understood that the sum of ^970 had 

 been subscribed, and he was so grateful for the invention, 

 that he would himself add the ^^30 required to make the 

 sum ;^I000. 



Mr Bell made an appropriate acknowledgment. ' My 

 feelings,' he said, ' are very different this day from what 

 they were forty years ago — when I left my father's house 

 on a cold winter morning, took my seat on the top of the 

 Edinburgh coach — (there were no railways in those days) 

 — wended my way to the capital of Scotland, for the purpose 

 of making my first bow before this honourable Society. 

 On that occasion I was full of fears and trembling — afraid 

 that my invention should turn out a mere chimera, and 

 trembling when I thought of coming before learned and 



