“What is the cause of the comparative failure of this attempt at a sewing-machine? It is evident that it is due to the retention of the feature of the hand operation by which the needle is passed from one holding mechanism to the other. The inventors of the modern sewing-machine on the one hand decided to work with a needle fixed in its holder and never leaving it throughout the operation. It at once followed that the needle and thread must, on the back stroke, return through the same hole through which they had entered the fabric, so that no stitch could be formed unless some obstacle were interposed to the return of the thread. Here the two famous and successful forms of the machine parted company. Both placed the eye at the point of the needle that the stroke might not be needlessly long, but while the lock stitch machine used a second thread to provide the necessary obstacle, the chain stitch machine availed itself of a loop of the original thread for that purpose. Thus in the lock stitch machine the substituted cycle became as follows:-- (1) The work is moved under the needle for the new stroke. (2) The needle (which has an eye at its point through which the thread passes) pierces the fabric carrying with it the thread. (3) A second thread is passed between the thread and the needle (by means of a shuttle or its equivalent) when the needle is at its lowest position. (4) The needle returns while a take-up retracts the thread so as to tighten the stitch. “This cycle would, for hand work, be immeasurably more complicated and difficult than ordinary sewing, but it consists of operations mechanically easy of performance in swift and accurately timed sequence, and as the whole of the thread in use has no longer to be passed from one side of the fabric to the other as each stitch is made, it has brought with it the all-important advantage of our being able to work with a continuous thread. Here, then, is a magnificent example of ‘coding.’ It is not to be wondered at that the machines which it has given to the world are in well-nigh universal use, and have profoundly modified both our social and industrial economy.” Obed Hussey and His Mower. One of the supreme inventions of all time is the mower of Obed Hussey, of Maryland, devised in 1833, and afterward adapted to reaping. In the primitive reaping of tall grain one hand keeps the stalks upright, while the other hand cuts these stalks with a scythe. Hussey, in a masterpiece of “coding,” arrayed metal fingers which keep the grain from bending, while vibrating knives sever the stalks. To this day his invention remains the core of millions of mowers as well as reapers; it has economized labor to an extent beyond estimate, and by shortening the time required in harvesting has saved many million bushels of grain which otherwise would have been destroyed by bad weather. [Illustration: Obed Hussey’s mower or reaper.]