, and a friend, Carlos Glidden, to whom this ingenious
contrivance was shown, suggested a machine to print letters.

The three friends decided to try. None had studied the efforts of
previous experimenters, and they made many errors which might have
been avoided. Gradually, however, the invention took form. Patents were
obtained in June, 1868, and again in July of the same year, but the
machine was neither strong nor trustworthy. Now appeared James Densmore
and bought a share in the machine, while Soule and Glidden retired.
Densmore furnished the funds to build about thirty models in succession,
each a little better than the preceding. The improved machine was
patented in 1871, and the partners felt that they were ready to begin
manufacturing.

Wisely they determined, in 1873, to offer their machine to Eliphalet
Remington and Sons, then manufacturing firearms, sewing machines, and
the like, at Ilion, New York. Here, in well-equipped machine shops it
was tested, strengthened, and improved. The Remingtons believed they saw
a demand for the machine and offered to buy the patents, paying either a
lump sum, or a royalty. It is said that Sholes preferred the ready cash
and received twelve thousand dollars, while Densmore chose the royalty
and received a million and a half.

The telegraph, the press, and the typewriter are agents of communication
for the written word. The telephone is an agent for the spoken word.
And there is another instrument for recording sound and reproducing it,
which should not be forgotten. It was in 1877 that Thomas Alva Edison
completed the first phonograph. The air vibrations set up by the human
voice were utilized to make minute indentations on a sheet of tinfoil
placed over a metallic cylinder, and the machine would then reproduce
the sounds which had caused the indentations. The record wore out after
a few reproductions, however, and Edison was too busy to develop his
idea further for a time, though later he returned to it.

The phonograph today appears under various names, but by whatever name
they are called, the best machines reproduce with wonderful fidelity
the human voice, in speech or song, and the tones of either a single
instrument or a whole orchestra. The most distinguished musicians are
glad to do their best for the preservation and reproduction of their
art, and through these machines, good music is brought to thousands to
whom it could come in no other way.

The camera bear