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

366 All About Inventions scarcely ever left the machine-shop, denying himself food and rest. At last the machine was completed, and was ready for the test. But maddening failure loomed up. The machine could not be induced to work at all! It was a fatal day. As the hours of evening crept on the workmen, disgusted, left him one by one, until at last only the companion who had financed the task remained with him. The failure was com- mencing to tell upon the mechanic, who was now all but a nervous wreck. His mind was too dis- traught to enable him to think clearly and calmly. The stitches were made, but they were a series of ragged loops. Strive how he would, he could not induce the machine to draw them tight. At last, as the clock struck midnight, the toiler threw down his tools with disgust and rose from the bench a broken man. Silently and slowly the two threaded the streets leading to the rooms in the poor quarter which they called their home. The mechanic was scarcely able to walk, the reaction under the blow of dis- appointment revealing his extreme physical weak- ness, brought on by deprivation and anxiety. His companion was equally sick at heart, because he, too, was reduced to penury. All hope of retrieving the forty dollars which constituted his worldly wealth and with which he had financed the speculation had vanished. The August night was hot and sultry, and the weakened toiler, on the verge of collapse, sank wearily upon a heap of timber stacked in the street. His companion sat down beside him. Not a word was