Boy Inventors | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 8, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 18.

Boy Inventors.

A BOY'S elders are guilty of a foolish act when they snub him because he says or does something which they don't understand. A boy's personality is entitled to as much respect as a man's, so long as he behaves himself.

Some of the most important inventions have been the work of boys. The invention of the valve motion to the steam engine was made by a mere boy. Newcome's engine was in a very incomplete condition from the fact that there was no way to open or close the valves except by means of levers operated by the hand. Newcome set up a large engine at one of the mines, and a boy, Humphrey Potter, was hired to work these valve levers; although this was not hard work, yet it required his constant attention. As he was working the levers he saw that parts of the engine moved in the same direction and at the same time that he had to open or close the valves. He procured a strong cord and made one end fast to the proper part of the engine and the other end to the valve lever, and then had the satisfaction of seeing the engine move with perfect regularity of motion. A short time after, the foreman came around and saw the boy playing marbles at the door. Looking at the engine he saw the ingenuity of the boy, and also the advantage of so great an invention. The idea suggested by the boy's inventive genius was put in a practical form, and made the steam engine an automatic working machine.

The power loom is the invention of a farmer's boy who had never seen or heard of such a thing. He whittled one out with his jack-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 sent to a blacksmith to learn a trade, and his master took a lively interest in him. He made a loom of what was left of the one his father had broken up and showed it to his master. The blacksmith saw he had no common boy as an apprentice, and that the invention was a valuable one. He had a loom constructed under the supervision of the boy. It worked to their perfect satisfaction, and the blacksmith furnished the means to manufacture the looms and the boy received half the profits. In about a year the blacksmith wrote to the boy's father that he should bring to see him a wealthy gentleman who was the inventor of the celebrated power loom. You may be able to judge of the astonishment of the old gentleman when his son was presented to him as the inventor, who told him that the loom was the same as the model that he had kicked to pieces a year before.—Sel.