Astonishing Precocity of Ericsson.
John Ericsson as a child was the wonder of the neighborhood, says his biographer, Mr. William C. Conant. From the first he exhibited the qualities distinguishing him in later life. His industry was ceaseless; he was busy from morning to night drawing, planning and constructing. The machinery at the mines near his home was to him an endless source of wonder and delight. In the early morning he hastened to the works, carrying with him a drawing pencil, bits of paper, pieces of wood, and a few rude tools. There he would remain the day through, seeking to discover the principles of motion in the machines, and striving to copy their forms. In his tenth year this boy undertook to design a pump for draining the mines of water. The motor was to be a windmill. Such a contrivance the young inventor had never seen, yet he succeeded in drawing designs for his mill after the most approved fashion of skilled engineers by following a verbal description given by his father of a mill he had just visited.