170 years ago today - May 16, 1847

William Clayton writes, "About noon today Brother Appleton Harmon completed the machinery on the wagon called a 'roadometer' by adding a wheel to revolve once in ten miles, showing each mile and also each quarter mile we travel, and then casing the whole over so as to secure it from the weather. We are now prepared to tell accurately the distance we travel from day to day, which will supercede the idea of guessing, and be a satisfaction not only to this Camp, but to all who hereafter travel this way." Earlier Clayton was upset that Harmon had been "trying to have it understood that he invented the machinery" rather than simply having constructed it following Clayton's and Orson Pratt's instructions.