A working farm is fertile ground for mechanical automation, with so many inspiring examples that it is hard to count them, although the one that always comes to mind first is the hay bailer. A machine that picks up loose grass and turns it into a rectangle bale of hay held together with two pieces of twine that both have identical mechanically tied knots. For some reason after all these years this piece of equipment still impresses me more than many others. I now routinely use a device smaller than a deck of cards to communicate with sound, text, and pictures to people all over the world, but the turning of that grass and the occasional gardener snake into a bale of hay held together with machine tied knots still holds magic for me.

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