Claim: The Eureka was created by Clark as a way to automate latin verses by using a series of six drums that turned at different rates, with words encloded as rows of stop wires of different lengths onto which wooden staves would be dropped.
Evidence: The Eureka is a machine for generating Latin verses, created and exhibited in the mid nineteenth century by the Quaker inventor John Clark of Bridgwater. Clark's contribution was to fully automate this process. The mechanism was a series of six drums turning at different rates within the cabinet. The words were not simply printed on the drums, but encoded as rows of stop wires of different lengths, onto which wooden staves would be dropped.