Other men, in this country and in Europe, had nourished similar notions.

Several Englishmen had invented reaping machines, all of which had had only a single defect--they would not reap.

An ingenious English actor had developed a contrivance which would cut imitation wheat on the stage, but no one had developed a machine that would work satisfactorily in real life.

Robert McCormick spent the larger part of his days and nights tinkering at a practical machine.

He finally produced a horrific contrivance, made up of whirling sickles, knives, and revolving rods, pushed from behind by two horses; when he tried this upon a grain-field, however, it made a humiliating failure.
Evidently Robert McCormick had ambitions far beyond his powers; yet without his absurd experiments the development of American agriculture might have waited many years.