ger corporation,
and, finally, occupied an executive position as managing engineer for a
municipal light and power plant in one of the large cities of the country.

THE GENESIS OF AN INVENTOR

Some years ago we spent a few months in a very comfortable and homelike
hotel in one of the largest cities in the Middle West. Down in a nook of
the basement of this hotel was a private electric light plant. In charge
of the plant was an old Scotch engineer delightful for his wise sayings
and quaint philosophy. The fireman, a young man named T., was rather a
puzzle to us. He had all the marks of unusual mechanical ability, and yet
he seemed to take only the slightest interest in his work, and was
constantly being reproved by his chief for laziness, irresponsibility, and
neglect of duty. "What's the use?" he asked us, after we gained his
confidence, and had asked him why he did not take greater interest in his
work. "What's the use? After years of experience shoveling coal into a
firebox and monkeying around these old grease pots, I suppose I might get
an engineer's certificate. Then what would I be? Why, just like old Mack
there--$75 to $100 a month, sitting around a hot, close basement twelve
hours a day or, perhaps, twelve hours at night, nothing to look forward
to, no further advancement, no more pay, and, finally, T.B. would carry me
off because of the lack of fresh air, sunshine and outdoor exercise. No,
thank you!"

"Well, then, why don't you do something else?"

"I don't know what to do. I like mechanics, and some job of this kind is
the only thing I know how to do or would care to do. Yet, I don't care for
this. I must confess that I am puzzled as to what in the world I was made
for, anyhow."

"What you need is to give your time and attention to the intellectual side
of engineering rather than the purely mechanical and physical. You are of
the intellectual type, and you are as badly placed trying to do mere
mechanical work as if you were an eagle trying to cross the country on
foot."

"I believe you are right in that. I am going to get an education."

AMBITION, INDUSTRY, AND PERSISTENCE

He began at once with correspondence courses in mechanical and electrical
engineering. Twelve hours a day he shoveled coal in his basement
boiler-room. Some four to eight hours a day he studied in his little room
up under the roof. It takes an immense amount of courage, persistence, and
perseverance to complete a correspondence co