After a great deal of tinkering and trying, they did succeed in making two paddle wheels.
Turgot's only choice, however, was between "tinkering" at the existing system in detail and a complete revolution, and his attack on privilege, which might have been carried through by a popular minister and a strong king, was bound to form part of any effective scheme of reform.
That bit was about tinkering with the payment rules.
Outside a group of teenagers are tinkering with a car engine.
The wheat farmers say that it does not pay to take undue care of old machinery, that more money is lost in repairing and tinkering an old machine than would pay for a new one.