III.
A GENIUS.
HAVING PROGRESSED thus in our story, or properly having in the middle, it is now necessary that we should turn to the proper starting point.
Several years since a woman in the of St. Louis, name was Brainerd. Her husband had been a mechanic, noted for his ingenuity, but was killed some five years by the of a steam boiler. He left him a son, hump-backed, dwarfed, but with an that him a with all with he came in contact.
If nature in one direction she makes in another direction, and this dwarf, small and as he was, was with a most mind. His on the marvelous. When he to school, he was a with teachers and pupils. The loved him for his of disposition, and his in all studies, while the their upon the that he to any of them at their tasks, while with the pocket-knife which he he toys which were their delight. Some of these were so and that, had they been by patent, they would have a to him and his mother.
But Johnny of them, although the support of himself and mother came from one or two patents, which his father had upon inventions, not near the equal of his.
There no limit to his powers. He a and then a steamboat, perfect in every part, to the minutest, using nothing but his knife, hammer, and a small chisel. He a clock with his jack-knife, which perfect time, and the articles which he were at at fairs, and in windows, while Johnny away at some new idea. He a master of the art of without from any one using a common with which to the alphabet. He then a of batteries, ran a line from his window to a neighbor's, it by means of the necks of some bottles, the other boy the alphabet, and thus they themselves sending and forth.
Thus until he was fifteen years of age, when he came home one day, and on the by his mother, and gave a great sigh.
'What is the matter?' she inquired. 'I want to make something.'
'Why, then, don't you make it?'
'Because I don't know what it shall be; I've up I can think of.'
'And you are like Alexander, for more worlds to conquer. Is that it?'
'Not exactly, for there is for one to do, if I only out what it is.'
'Have you a balloon?' The boy laughed.
'You were for the cat the other day, and what had of her. I didn't tell you that the last I saw of her was through the telescope, she being about two miles up in the clouds, and going about fifty miles an hour.'
'I you looked as though you something about her,' the mother, trying to speak reprovingly, and yet in of herself.
'Can't you tell me something to make?' asked the boy.
'Yes; there is something I have often of, and wonder why it was not long ago; but you are not to do it, Johnny.'
'Maybe not; but tell me what it is.'
'It is a man that shall go by steam!' The boy still minutes without speaking a word and then up. 'By George! I'll do it!' And he started out of the room, and was not again until night. His mother no anxiety. She was pleased; for, when her boy was at work, he was happy, and she that he had now, to keep him for months to come.
So it proved. He in thought, he the toward his success of all. He then his workshop, and so it, that he would not be in of being by any eyes. He wanted no while upon this scheme.
From a foundry, took great in the boy, he all that he needed. He was allowed full to make what he chose, and to he wished. And so he his work.
The great point was to obtain the motion of a man walking. This secured, the man himself be easily made, and up in any required. Finally the boy that he had upon the true scheme.
So he than ever, to take his meals. Finally he got the machine together, up, and with to those, of Sir Isaac Newton, when the truth or of some of his discoveries, he the result.
Soon the moving up and down, but a step did they advance! The power was there, to a saw-mill, every thing to work, but the thing wouldn't go!
The boy was not to despair. He seated himself on the bench the machine, and up a supply of steam, in of wood, and in water, when necessary, he the movement for hours.
Occasionally, Johnny walked slowly and forth, and with his upon the 'stately stepping,' to the nature of that which was in his machine.
At length it came to him. He saw from the that it was not that the steam man should up its and put them again, but there must be a powerful at the same moment. This was the single to be overcome. It two Johnny Brainerd succeeded. But it all came clear and at last, and in this manner:
(Ah! but we cannot be so to the as to his secret. Our readers must be to the time when the man sees fit to it himself.)
When the was in order, the from around it, so that it alone in the center of his shop. Then he let on steam.
Before he it off, the steam man walked clean through the of his shop, and up against the of the house, with a that it to its foundation. In trepidation, the forward, off steam, and it round. As it was too for him to manage in any other way, he very let on steam again, and it to walk into the shop, through the same through which it had emerged, and came very going out on the opposite again.
The great thing was now accomplished, and the boy himself to it as near perfection as possible. The thing to be was its out of order, since the would be to stop the progress of the man.
Johnny therefore it of size, the and being no more than 'Shells,' used as a of screen to the of the engine. This was painted in the manner mentioned in another place, and the was as and as it was possible for it to be. It was so as to the to which it necessarily would be subjected, and was as nearly perfect as it was possible to a thing not intelligence.
By the machine so that Its were clear of the floor, Johnny Brainerd that under It very nearly sixty miles an hour. It easily do that, and a car to it on the railroad, while on a common road it make thirty miles, the at which he it possible for a to be upon land with any of safety.
It was the boy's to at twenty miles an hour, while where was safe, he would the power of the by occasionally making nearly that.
As it was, he calculated that when it came forth, it would make a great the entire United States.
