The Wonder Book Of Knowledge Part 69

In 1875 McCormick began putting out harvesters of the Marsh type. Of straight Marsh harvesters--carrying a man to bind--there had been made up to and including 1879 over 100,000, of which about two-thirds had been produced by the Marsh combination and the rest by outsiders.

The Self-Binder.

The development of the automatic binder followed quickly after the introduction of the Marsh harvester, although attempts were made to perfect this machine as early as 1850.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A MODERN GRAIN BINDER IN HEAVY OATS]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE WITHINGTON BINDER BUILT BY THE MCCORMICKS IN 1876

This machine binds the grain with wire.]

The self-binding harvester was borne on the shoulders of the Marsh harvester. Carpenter, Locke, Gordon, Appleby and every inventor who succeeded in any measure in binding grain, first did so by placing his binding attachment upon a Marsh harvester, taking the grain from a receptacle where it fell to another receptacle where it was bound. The first record of these attempts is a patent granted to J. E. Heath, of Warren, Ohio, in 1850. Watson, Renwick and Watson secured patents in 1851 and 1853, but their machines were very complicated and never more than experiments. From that time until 1865 many patents were granted, none of which may be considered successful.

In 1865 S. D. Locke of Janesville secured a patent which ultimately developed into the Withington wire binder first put out by McCormick in 1875.

The Withington machine was an improvement on the binding device patented by Locke in 1865. McCormick built 50,000 of these machines between 1877 and 1885. It was a simple mechanism which consisted mainly of two steel fingers that moved back and forth and twisted a wire band around each sheaf of grain.

Farmers did not take kindly to the wire binder. They said that wire would mix with the straw and kill their horses and cattle.

The Twine Binder.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE DEERING TWINE BINDER OF 1879

This is the perfected Marsh harvester with a perfected Appleby twine binding attachment and was first put out by the Deering Company in 1879.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE MCCORMICK TWINE BINDER OF 1881 WITH THE APPLEBY BINDING ATTACHMENT, WHICH USED TWINE INSTEAD OF WIRE]

[Ill.u.s.tration: A TRACTOR PULLING FIVE HARVESTER BINDERS

These machines cut a swath 40 feet wide in the grain field, gathering the grain into bundles and dropping them alongside to be picked up by the sweep rake.]

This was the situation in the harvesting industry about the time that William Deering took an active interest. He looked about for a better machine. He found John F. Appleby, who, in 1878, had perfected a twine binder attachment. When Deering saw the strong steel arms flash a cord around a bundle of grain, tie a knot, cut the cord and fling off the sheaf, he knew he had what the world needed. Appleby began working on his invention in 1858, but accomplished nothing until 1869 when he took out his first patent on a "wire binder." In 1874 he began what is known as the Appleby twine binder, operating one in 1875 and 1876 and several in 1877. In 1879 Deering bought out Gammon, joined forces with Appleby, moved the factory from Plano to Chicago in 1880, and began putting out twine binders. In 1881 McCormick, also, and Champion began building the Appleby binder.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE PROGRESSIVE FARMER NOW USES A MECHANICAL MANURE SPREADER TO INCREASE THE PRODUCTIVENESS OF HIS LAND

The modern spreader is built low and equipped with a special wide spread attachment which throws the manure well beyond the wheels.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: A GRAIN DRILL WITH DISK AND CHAIN ATTACHMENTS

This drill is large enough to require the strength of four horses to pull it.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: A SMALL KEROSENE TRACTOR CAN PULL TWO OR THREE GRAIN DRILLS FASTENED TOGETHER BY SPECIAL TRACTOR HITCHES]

With the development of an attachment to bind with twine, a new problem arose--where to get a cheap serviceable twine. William Deering again arose to the occasion. He met Edwin H. Fitler in Philadelphia, one of the three twine makers in the United States, and after a good deal of persuasion induced him to take an order for a single-strand binder twine. From that time on, all manufacturers have been building practically the same machine--the Appleby binding attachment on the Marsh type of harvester which, in turn, was founded on the McCormick cutting mechanism. The self-binder of today is of that type.

Other Machines Follow.

The completion of the reaper set the wheels of farm invention spinning.

It was the first great battle successfully won and gave a spirit of confidence and an irresistible spirit of victory to the men who were lifting the burdens off the bodies of men. After the reaper, the mowing machine came naturally. Following the binder in easy sequences came the corn binder, push binder, header and harvester thresher.

Every variety of haying machine, from side-delivery rake and tedder to sweep rake and loader, came eventually to make hay-making easy. The thresher, ensilage cutter, riding plow, disk harrow, cream separator, manure spreader and seeding machines succeeded in making the raising of the world's food a profitable occupation; at the same time, they made it an easy one. Lately, the internal combustion engine, together with its application in the kerosene tractor, promises to make the farmer's emanc.i.p.ation practically complete. If Herbert Ca.s.son could say "The United States owes more to the reaper than it does to the factory or the railroad or the Wall Street stock exchange," what can be said of these myriad machines that now do the food-grower's work for him?

Where formerly nearly all the people had to engage in food raising and even then went to bed hungry, now nearly half the people live away from the farm and there is a great abundance of bread and of food.

What Causes an Echo?

An echo is caused by the reflection of sound waves at some moderately even surface, such as the wall of a building. The waves of sound on meeting the surface are turned back in their course, according to the same laws that hold for reflection of light. In order that the echo may return to the place from which the sound proceeds, the reflection must be direct, and not at an angle to the line of transmission, otherwise the echo may be heard by others, but not by the transmitter of the sound. This may be effected either by a reflecting surface at right angles to the line of transmission or by several reflecting surfaces, which end in bringing the sound back to the point of issue.

Sound travels about 1,125 feet in a second; consequently, an observer standing at half that distance from the reflecting object would hear the echo a second later than the sound. Such an echo would repeat as many words and syllables as could be heard in a second. As the distance decreases the echo repeats fewer syllables till it becomes monosyllabic.

The most practiced ear cannot distinguish in a second more than from nine to twelve successive sounds, so that a distance of not less than sixty feet is needed to enable a common ear to distinguish between the echo and the original sounds. At a near distance the echo only clouds the original sounds. This often interferes with the hearing in churches and other large buildings. Woods, rocks and mountains produce natural echoes in every variety, for which particular localities have become famous.

In Greek mythology, Echo was a nymph (one of the Oreads) who fell in love with Narcissus, and because he did not reciprocate her affection she pined away until nothing was left but her voice.

The Story of the Motion-Picture Projecting Machine[69]

Few businesses have had a more spectacular rise than the motion-picture industry. It may be true that there are other industries of recent growth that are more highly capitalized than the motion-picture business. I shall not make any comparisons nor look up statistics, but will present some facts about an enterprise that, scientifically, industrially and commercially, is one of the great wonders of the world.

It is fair to estimate that more than $375,000,000 is invested in this business in the United States. It looks like an exaggeration or as if the typesetter had slipped in several extra ciphers by mistake, does it not? Nevertheless, the estimate is said to be extremely conservative. In the first place, it concerns every branch of the business, of which there are five. Taken in their natural order there are: 1. The manufacture of motion-picture cameras. 2. The manufacture of films. 3.

The taking of the pictures. 4. The manufacture of the projecting machines. 5. The exhibition of the pictures.

The projecting machine is the subject of this story. One sees very little about it in the newspapers and popular magazines, in spite of the fact that it is the keystone, so to speak, of the motion-picture industry. Of the entire business, in all its ramifications, this machine is the most important not only from a technical standpoint, but as regards both the pleasure and safety of the public. Here, again, a great deal of money is invested. Its manufacture involves costly and highly specialized machinery, the most intelligent of mechanics and the constant thought and endeavor of the men at the head of the business.

The advancement in the manufacture of motion-picture projecting machines from the start has been along two avenues--to secure better projection, a sharper, clearer and steadier picture, and to eliminate the danger of fire resultant from the ignition of combustible film. Experts have watched and studied the picture machine through all its stages of development. For seventeen years they have slowly improved the machine and brought it to its present high state of mechanical perfection. The development of the fireproof magazine, the automatic fire-shutter, the loop-setter, flame s.h.i.+elds and the famous intermittent movement have all been vital factors in the elimination of fire and also in securing perfect projection. The oldest invention was patented by W. E. Lincoln on April 23, 1867. The contrivance was a mere toy, employing no light and being merely a little machine which, when revolved, gave figures, printed in different positions, the semblance of motion. The second oldest was of an "optical instrument" patented by O. B. Brown on August 10, 1869. This was really the first American motion-picture projection machine. There was a sort of disk or moving-shutter movement which, on revolving, gave projected objects the appearance of animation. Of course, there were no films in those days and the inventor had used translucent gla.s.s to obtain the results. Yet here was the germ of our native modern machine.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE LATEST MOTION-PICTURE PROJECTING MACHINE]

A well-known moving-picture projecting machine manufacturer tells the following story: "A bet was made in 1871 by the late Senator Leland Stanford, of California, that a running horse at no time had all four feet off the ground. Edward Muybridge, an Englishman, by way of experiment, placed numerous cameras at regular intervals about the track, which, by electrical contact, were snapped by the horse in pa.s.sing. It proved that the horse always had, when running, one foot on the ground. Although this was not the first record of motion pictures, it served to demonstrate their practicability.

"Development had dragged until the Muybridge experiment. In 1880 Muybridge produced, in San Francisco, the 'Zoopraxiscope,' which projected pictures (on gla.s.s positives) on a screen. Later Muybridge conferred with Edison regarding a combination of his machine with the phonograph, then in its infancy; about 1883 he went abroad and held frequent conferences with M. Marey of the Inst.i.tute of France.

"Marey first utilized the continuous film, though it was George Eastman who brought it to its present state of high perfection. A great deal of the tremendous present popularity of motion pictures is due to the invention of the translucent film. The early kodak film became the great factor in the cinematograph manufacture.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE LAMPHOUSE AFFORDS EASY ACCESS]

"In 1893 Lumiere produced the 'Cinematograph,' the first machine to project from a film. Edison in 1896 produced his 'Vitascope.' These machines became the models of the greatly improved article of today.

"The first real machine was brought to America in 1894. At least, that is as near as I can recollect the date. It was a Lumiere cinematograph and was exhibited at the Union Square Theater, New York City. The French manufacturing firm instructed J. B. Cole & Co. to furnish an operator.

The Cole Company was interested in the sale of lanterns and slides and the foreign firm naturally turned to them for a.s.sistance.