Inventors . miniature saw-mill of ingenious con-struction, and had planned a pumping-enginedesigned to keep the mines free from frame of the saw-mill was of wood; thesaw-blade was made from a watch-spring andwas moved by a crank made from a broken tinspoon. A file, borrowed from a neighboringblacksmith, a gimlet, and a jack-knife were theonly tools used in this work. His pumping-en-gine was a more ambitious affair, to be operatedby a wind-mill. The family then lived in the wilderness, sur-rounded by a pine forest, where Ericssons fatherwas engaged in selecting timber for the lock-gat
Inventors . miniature saw-mill of ingenious con-struction, and had planned a pumping-enginedesigned to keep the mines free from frame of the saw-mill was of wood; thesaw-blade was made from a watch-spring andwas moved by a crank made from a broken tinspoon. A file, borrowed from a neighboringblacksmith, a gimlet, and a jack-knife were theonly tools used in this work. His pumping-en-gine was a more ambitious affair, to be operatedby a wind-mill. The family then lived in the wilderness, sur-rounded by a pine forest, where Ericssons fatherwas engaged in selecting timber for the lock-gates of a canal. A quill and a pencil were theboys tools in the way of drawing materials. Hemade compasses of birch wood. A pair of steeltweezers were converted into a had never seen a wind-mill, but follow-ing as well as he could the description of thosewho had, he succeeded in constructing on paperthe mechanism connecting the crank of a wind-mill with the pump-lever. The plan, conceived. c V £ 3C O -a c CO0) o CO CO C o LJ C _co ERICSSON 181 and executed under such circumstances by a */ mere boy, attracted the attention of CountPlaten, president of the Gotha Ship Canal, onwhich Ericssons father was employed, and whenEricsson was twelve years old he was madea member of the surveying party carrying outthe canal work and put in charge of a hundred of the royal troops looked for direc-tions in their daily work to this boy, one of hisattendants being a man who followed him witha stool, upon which he stood to use the survey-ing instruments. The amusements of this boyengineer, even at the age of fifteen, are indicatedby a portfolio of drawings made in his leisuremoments, giving maps of the most importantparts of the canal, three hundred miles in length,and showing all the machinery used in its con- O J struction. His precocity was, however, the nor-mal and healthy development of a mind as fondof mechanical principles as Raphael was of was in
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookpublishernewyorkcscribnerss
