its quota to the ultimate success, either through its suggestions of a better way, or by serving as a warning and indication how _not_ to do it. Several type-setting machines have been devised, some of them very ingenious; but one after another failed to stand the test of actual work. It is not, however, half so strange that many should fail as that any should succeed in so great and delicate a work. So vast and difficult is the problem, that many of the best mechanicians of our day, whose knowledge of the capabilities of machinery gives their judgment peculiar weight, have pronounced it an impossibility, and have classed these efforts with the fascinating but visionary chase after a method of perpetual motion. But inventors are a peculiar race, as is seen in the case of Gutenberg, especially endowed with an indomitable faith in the possible; and they are continually attempting and doing things with little other apparent motive than the fact that the world has supposed them impossible. The inventor of the machines we have examined, Mr. O. L. Brown, of Boston, has made a careful study of the subject for years, and seems finally to have found the secret, both of simplicity and success. Especially is the device for setting the types so simple that it might perhaps more properly be called an instrument than a machine. The Type-distributer strikes one as more curious and wonderful, inasmuch as it is entirely automatic, and is operated by steam; but it is an adaptation of one of the most common and familiar mechanical principles. The Type-setter comprises a case, a stick, and a justifier. The case consists of a series of grooves or channels ranged side by side, each just wide enough to receive a line of type. There is no limit to this case, either in the number of channels, or their length. In these channels, the types stand upon their feet, and the case is set at such an angle that they slide downward by their own gravity, and rest upon the bar which closes the lower ends. Across the foot a shield is placed, provided with openings for the types to pass through as they are set; and an index, showing the letters and sorts which the case contains. Corresponding openings in the rear allow the tongue, which forces out the letter, to enter.