The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1886-10-28
JUVENILE GENIUS.
SOME OF THE WONDERFUL DISCOVERIES
MADE BY BOYS.

Popular Science: Some of the most
important inventions have been the work
of mere boys. The invention of the
valve motion to the steam engine was
made by boy. Watt left the engine in
a very incomplete condition, from the
fact that he had no way to open or close
the valves except by the means of levers
operated by the hand. He set up large
engine at one of the mines, and a boy
was hired to work these valve levers.
Although this was not hard work, yet it
required his constant attention. As he
was working these levers, he saw that
parts of the engine moved in the right
direction and at the exact time that he
had to open or close the valves. He
procured a long, strong cord, and made
one end fast to the proper part of the
engine and the other end to the valve
lever. Then he had the satisfaction of
seeing the engine move off with perfect
| regularity of motion. A short time after
the foreman came around and saw the
boy playing marbles at the door. Look
ing at the engine he soon saw the in
gennity of the boy, and also the advant-
| ages of SO great an invention. Mr.. Watt
then carried out the boys inventive gen
lns in a practical form, and made the
steam engine perfect automatic working
machine. The power loom is the in
vention of farmer boy who had never
seen or heard of such thing. He cut
out with his knife, and after he had got
it all done he with great enthusiasm
showed it to his father, who at once
kicked it to pieces, saying that he would
have no boy about him who would spend
his time on such foolish things. The
boy was afterward apprenticed to black
smith, and he soon found that his new
master was kind and took lively inter-
est IL him. He had made loom of
what was left of the one his father had
broken up which he showed to his master
The blacksmith saw that he had no
| common boy as apprentice, and that the
| invention was very valuable one. He
| Immediately had loom constructed
under the supervision of the boy. 1t
worked to their perfect satisfaction, and
the blacksmith furnished the means to
manufacture the looms, the boy to re-
| celve one half the profits. In about a
year the blacksmith wrote to the boys
father that he should visit him, and
OIluB Will MIN d wealthy gentleman VINO
| was the inventor of the celebrated power
loom. You may be able to Judge of the
establishment at the old home when his
son was presented as the inventor, who
told him the loom was the same as the
model that he (the father had kicked to
pieces a year before. Smeaton, the
great mechanic, when boy disdained
the ordinary playthings of boyhood. Ee
| collected the tools of workmen and
bothered them with questions. One
| day after having watched some mill
wrights, he was discovered, to the great
distress of his family, in a situation of
extreme danger, fixing windmill on the
top of the barn. His father sent him to
| London to study law, but he declared
that claw did not suit the bent of his
genius" and addressed a memorial to
| bis father to show his utter incompetency
for legal pursuits. His father finally
allowed him to do as he. wished, and it
| was he who built the Eddystone light
| house in the midst of the waves.