All About Inventions and Discoveries
The Romance of modern scientific and mechanical Achievements

i86 All About Inventions the weakness in the preceding machine remedied, only to have another defect become manifest, and which likewise necessitated a further model. This treatment was a sore tax upon Sholes, but Densmore was implacable. Before it could possibly be placed upon the market the machine must be made reliable. Sholes grew more and more disgusted with the in- vention as model after model was built, and almost regretted the day that he had ever been prompted to attempt to devise a machine which would write type. In fact, it is probable that Sholes would have abandoned the idea had it not been for the insistence of Densmore, whose enthusiasm remained unabated, notwithstanding the exasperating difficulties which loomed up and required solution. As Sholes dis- covered afterwards, it was essentially the common sense of Densmore which saved the invention from lapsing among the many others which had gone before. Once the two men came to an argument, but Densmore emphatically declared that he would aban- don the whole thing unless it was carried to such a degree of perfection that anyone might use it, and with an immunity from breakdown. Densmore’s unrelenting attitude won the day. Five years slipped by in this work of perfection, during which period Sholes built about thirty suc- cessive models. Then Densmore concluded that it had been brought to the stage when it might be safely handed over to a competent firm for manufac- ture, and thus be introduced to the commercial world. The question arose as to which was the best firm to carry out its manufacture. It involved, from the