Stories of Great Inventors | Page 7

work.
And so bright was he that he succeeded in getting it together all right.
His father did not find out the mischief.
Several years afterward Eli told him about it.
When Eli was thirteen years old his father married a second time.
Eli's stepmother had a handsome set of table knives.
She valued them highly.
One day Eli said, "I could make as good knives as those if I had tools.
"And I could make the tools if I had common tools to begin with."
His mother laughed at him.

But soon after one of the knives was broken.
Eli made a blade exactly like the broken one, except its stamp.
Soon Eli was fifteen years of age.
He wished to go into the nail-making business.
It was during the Revolution.
Nails were made almost entirely by hand.
They were in great demand.
They brought good prices.
Eli asked his father to bring him a few tools.
His father consented.
The work was begun.
Eli was very industrious.
He made good nails.
He also found time to make more tools for his own use.
He put in knife blades.
He repaired broken machinery.
He did many other things beyond the skill of country workmen.
Eli worked in this way two winters.
He made money.
He worked on the farm in the summer.

At one time Eli took a journey of forty miles.
He visited every workshop on the way.
These visits taught him much.
He found a man who could go back with him and help him in his
business.
At the close of the war it did not pay to go on with the nail-making.
The ladies began a new fashion about that time.
This was the use of long pins for fastening on their bonnets.
He made very nearly all the pins used.
Eli made these pins with great skill.
This work was done in the time spared from his farm work.
He also made excellent walking canes.
During all these years Eli's schooling had been received at different
times at the district school.
He was very fond of arithmetic.
During his nineteenth year he made up his mind to have a college
education.
His step-mother did not wish him to do this.
But he worked hard and saved his money.
A part of the time he taught school.
He was twenty-three when he entered Yale College.

He borrowed some money, for which he gave his note.
At one time one of the college teachers wished to show his pupils some
experiments. But some of the things to be used were broken.
Eli offered to mend them.
This he did, and succeeded in surprising every one.
A carpenter lived near his boarding place.
Eli asked for the loan of some of his tools.
The careful carpenter did not wish to lend them.
He at last gave his consent in this way:--
The gentleman with whom Mr. Whitney boarded must promise to pay
all the damages.
But he soon saw how skilful Mr. Whitney was.
He was surprised and said:
"There was one good mechanic spoiled when you went to college."
Mr. Whitney graduated in 1792.
He was engaged by a gentleman in Georgia to teach his children.
It was on this journey to his new work that he met Mrs. Greene.
Mrs. Greene liked Mr. Whitney very much.
When they reached Savannah, she invited him to her home.
At this time he had a great disappointment.
The gentleman who had hired him to come to Georgia coolly told him

his services were not wanted.
He had no friends.
He was out of money.
But Mrs. Greene became his good friend.
He went to live at her house.
Here he began the study of law.
Mrs. Greene was one day doing some embroidery.
She broke the frame upon which she was working.
She did not know how to finish the work without it.
Mr. Whitney looked at it carefully.
Then he made her a new frame.
It was even better than the other one had been.
Of course Mrs. Greene was much pleased.
Mr. Whitney also made fine toys for the children.
Soon after this, a party of gentlemen visited at Mrs. Greene's home.
They were nearly all men who had been officers during the war.
Mr. Greene had been their general.
They began talking of the South.
They wished something might be done to improve that part of the
country.
They wished it might be made a better place in which to live.

They spoke of the fine spinning machines that were coming into use in
England.
Much land in the South could be used for cotton.
This could be sent to England for manufacture.
The South could become a rich country in this way.
But there was one great difficulty.
It