Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1902-05-26
goes forth on his mission dread.
Boys as Inventors.

" Outh Companion.
Boys az Inventors.
The man who built the iron bridge at
Sunderland. John Ericsson. was a
skilled engineer at the age of II. He
was then in charge of u section of one
Of the great Swedish canals and 600
men employed upon it looked to him
for direction In their daily work.
Young Ericsson was one of the very
few infant prodigies who have not
been failures when they grew up. AT
the age of IL he invented a new form
of sawmill
OF the sawmill he constructed
working model. The saw blade he
made of an old watch spring. moved
by crank constructed Of a broken
teaspoon. and his only tools were a
knife. file and a gimlet. 1t was
this same wonderful inventor who la
ter on drove a big ship across the
Atlantic by a hot-air engine-a form
Of mechanism safe. sure and speedy.
and only barred from practical use on
the score of expense.
The name Brush is inseparably con-
nected with the Brush electric light.
AMI Charles +. Brush. its inventor. is
another genius who showed his in
ventive powers at an early age. Be
fore he was IA he had constructed a
new form of electric motor. and had
also invented an electric apparatus for
turning on the gas In street lamps.
lighting it and turning it off again.
Next year he made microscope.
grinding the lens himself.
1t Is rather curious that Edison's
first invention of any Importance was
caused by a longing to avoid tedious.
monotonous work. When, as a boy of
IA, he was night telegraph clerk. it
was his duty to report himself every
half hour to the head office by tele
graphing the word six" This was
to prove that he was not asleep Edi
son. however, had no idea of sleep
ing, but preferred to take a little eX
ercise in the open air at night So he
got over the difficulty by cutting suit
able nOtches on a wheel and attaching
this to the works of cheap clock.
This primitive apparatus would trans
nit the signal automatically twelve
times at intervals of half an hour.
Edison's very first invention was at
the tender age of H. He erected toy
telegraph line, but could not manage
to purchase materials for Il battery. SO
he caught big black cat and endeav-
ored to obtain the necessary current
by rubbing the fur of the creatures
back and using the wretched animals
four feet as terminals.
All lamps up to near the end of the
eighteenth century had solid wickS like
pieces of cord and no chimneyS. 1t
was not until the year 1888 that a
fiat wick was made. \ year later a
Swiss chemist named Anne Argand in
vented a circular form Of burner: but
though vast Improvement on the rope
wick. the light was still Pickering and
uncertain. One day Argand's small
brother wandered into his work room
and picked up an empty oil flask. with
which he began to play. AT last he
fitted ii over the circular wick, by the
light of which his elder brother was
working In moment the fame
burned UP white and brilliant. and the
secret of the lamp chimney was made
: clear.
Cast iron cement was boys inven-
ton. though the name of the boy who
invented il is not known. One day
William Murdoch. the man who first
applied coal gas to illuminating pur
poses, went into workshop of Boul-
ton and Watt. in which he was EN-
: ployed. and began to hunt for a tool
he wanted in his tool chest. He found
everything in confusion and work
man told him he had seen one of the
boys at it few days before. Among
other upsets. some sal ammoniac had
been split on "A quantity of iron filings
: and the resulting mixture had bitten
into the blade of his saw. This COM
i. pound was the first cast iron cement