Chapter 84
"And did it answer?" said Hallett eagerly.
"No," said the old man, taking a pinch of snuff, as Linny and I now listened to him attentively. "The idea was clever, but it was too crude. He set up his stick full, Antony Grace, and neglected to read it afterwards. He failed at first."
"But you said it was a good idea, Mr Jabez," I exclaimed.
"A capital idea," said the old man, "but it was full of faults."
"Faults?" said Hallett dreamily.
"Yes, sir," said the old man, growing animated. "For instance, he would only have been able to set one kind of type--one size. He couldn't use italic. He wanted a clever, sensible woman or man to work the keys, another to make the type up into lines. And he was obliged to have a boy to work the little hammer, or beater, to drive the letters along.
Then the type would get stuck if the letters were not sent down exactly to the time; for two would meet in a lane, and then there was no end of confusion, and, after all, the type had to be distributed, and afterwards set up in sticks to fill the machine."
"Exactly," said Hallett, with animation, for the ice was broken. "I had thought of something similar."
"But you did not do it."
"No; oh no! Composition always seemed to me to require the mind of man--the brain to guide it. It seemed to me that invention should be applied to something of a more mechanical nature."
"Exactly," said Mr Jabez. "You couldn't make a machine to read and correct proofs, or revise a slip."
"Of course not," said Hallett.
"Of course not," said Mr Jabez. "But, mind you, I'm not one of those idiots who rise up in arms against machinery, and I don't say but what our friend might not have gone on and greatly improved his machine. For instance, he might have contrived another, to do away with the distribution and re-setting up of the type."
"Yes," said Hallett thoughtfully; "it might have been recast and replaced by mechanism."
"And always have new type," said Mr Jabez eagerly. "To be sure: a capital idea; but I don't know, Hallett, I don't know. They say you can buy gold too dearly. In the same way, you can make a time-saving process too expensive."
"Certainly," said Hallett thoughtfully; and I was glad to see now that he was pleased to meet the old man.
"It seems to me," said Mr Jabez, pa.s.sing his snuff-box, which Hallett received, and, to humour his visitor, partook of a pinch, "that an inventor ought to devote his attention to making machinery for doing away with a great deal more of our labouring mechanical work, and not the careful
"Printing, for instance?"
"Ye-es," said Mr Jabez; "but that ground has been pretty well taken up.
We have some good machines now, that do a lot of work by steam. Why, when I was a boy we used to have the clumsiest old presses possible to conceive. I don't think they had been much improved since the days of Caxton."
"And yet there is great room for improvement," cried Hallett, with animation. "Mr Rowle, we saw very little of each other beyond business encounters, but I believe, sir, that I may place trust in your word?"
"Thank you, Mr Hallett, I hope so. I'm sure I always placed confidence in yours. I am proud to say, Miss Hallett, that if your brother promised me a slip by a certain time, my mind was always easy, for I knew it would be done."
"Oh, nonsense, nonsense," said Hallett, smiling. "Look here, Mr Rowle, I feel that you will not betray my confidence, and I ask you as a favour to keep private what you see here to-night."
"What I see here?" said Mr Jabez, looking around with an a.s.sumed look of puzzle, while I felt the colour coming in my face as I thought of the part I was playing.
"I mean what I am about to show you, Mr Rowle," said Hallett, smiling.
"Trust me? Oh yes, of course, yes--of course," said the old man warmly; "here is my hand."
"Thank you," said Hallett, taking it. "Linny, my dear, you will not mind being left alone?"
"Oh no," she said, smiling; and lighting another lamp, Hallett led the way up to the attic, Mr Jabez finding an opportunity to give me a solemn wink before we stood by Hallett's bench.
"I have spent so much thought and labour over this model," said Hallett, "that, you must not be surprised at the jealousy with which I watch it."
"Oh no," said Mr Jabez, who proceeded, snuff-box in hand, to examine carefully every point in the invention.
"Well," said Hallett, at last, "do you think it will answer?"
In place of replying, Mr Jabez went all over it again, his interest growing fast, and being, I was glad to see, evidently sincere.
"I tell you what," he exclaimed at last, taking a tremendous pinch of snuff, "that thing would be splendid if you got it right."
"You like it, then?" said Hallett.
"Like it? I think it's grand. Why, man, it would make quite a revolution in the news business. You must get on--get it perfect."
Mr Hallett shook his head.
"It takes time and money," he said sadly. "It is slow work."
"Yes, but--hang it all, sir! you should get help. With such an important thing in hand you should work on."
"I do not know yet that it would answer," said Hallett sadly.
"But it must answer, sir," said the old man sharply. "If that machine did not answer, it would not be the fault or the principle, but of some blunder in the mechanism."
"Do you think so?" cried Hallett, whose eyes lighted up with pleasure.
"No, sir: I am sure so," said the old man. "The principle is as grand as it is simple; and what I like in the invention is this--you have taken up a part of the trade where it is all hand-labour--all mechanical. You are not trying to do away with brainpower."
"I am very glad you like my idea, Mr Rowle," said Hallett, proceeding to cover his model, which, when set in motion, ran easily and well.
"I am delighted with it," said Mr Jabez, poking him in the chest with his snuff-box. "Now, then, go ahead, and have the thing made on a workable scale."
"But I have not perfected it yet," replied Hallett.
"Never mind; perfect it as you go on. You are sure to find some weak spots. If I were you, sir, I should set a good firm of engineers to work on that at once."
Hallett smiled sadly.
"You are proposing impossibilities, Mr Rowle. This has been one of my great troubles, sir: how I was to carry on my project when I had completed my model. During the past few days I have been thinking of trying to sell the idea for what it is worth."
"What I and let some fellow without half an ounce of brains in his skull reap all the profit? Don't you do anything of the kind. There's a fortune in that contrivance, Mr Hallett. Sir, it is a great invention."
"What would you do, then?" said Hallett, smiling.
"Do, sir? I'd--I'd--"