The Boyhood of Great Inventors

by A. Fraser Robertson

“Little Jamie has gotten a fortune at his fingers’ ends.”

But while he worked his mind was not idle. He read eagerly and precociously, as a delicate child sometimes does, devouring all such books as he could lay hands on. Solid enough reading they will seem to boys to-day.

The Cloud of Witnesses, Henry the Rymer’s Life of Wallace, Boston, Bunyan.

Added to this was his parents’ talk, that fell on his young ears and stamped itself on his young mind, and the picturesque surroundings of his home, for he loved nature’s beauties—the hills, the stars, the trees. The mountains and the plains about his home were made romantic by memories and associations of Covenanting times, told him by his father, and his boyish rambles were made beautiful by wild flowers, and again there were long delightful days of fishing to add to these.

But in the midst of all this struggling in the boy’s mind was that strong leaning to mechanical invention longing for an outlet. It peeped out here and there—for instance, in being unable to see an instrument without wishing to discover all its uses. And so well did he show himself able even then to fashion delicate things like compasses and quadrants—an instrument in shape like the fourth of a circle—that his father, after much thought, made up his mind that James should learn the trade of a mathematical instrument maker.

So in 1754 James came out from the shelter of home and launched himself on the great world, rather more of an ordeal to the shy, timid boy than it would have been to one more robust and enterprising. This was practically the last of Greenock. The peaceful fishing-village was never again to be his home. Naturally he turned his steps to Glasgow. We can picture the great event in the quiet household. The boy getting ready, his modest baggage, his clothes (his mother’s tender care), a leather apron, some carpenter’s tools, and a quadrant.

But he was destined to go yet farther afield. No mathematical instrument-maker was to be found in Glasgow. A professor to whom James was introduced advised him to go to London. “To London” is an easy enough journey to-day—then it was a mighty undertaking. No trains—no steamers. One could only go by slow coach or on horseback. James chose the latter. His trunk was sent by sea from Leith, and he along with a friend set off on his long journey. He left on the 7th day of June, and travelling by Coldstream and Newcastle, he arrived in the great metropolis after a ride of twelve days!

Most likely, although there might have been fear in the boyish heart, it also beat high with hope. Again and again has London made fair promises to boys such as he. But disappointment was to meet him on the very threshold. He found that apprentices who intended to serve a term of seven years were only accepted. This was very far from James’s thoughts. What he wanted was to learn the trade, start off home again, and set up in Glasgow for himself as soon as possible. After many failures, however, he at last found a man willing to take him on for a year on his promise to pay twenty guineas with the results of his work during that time.

And now began a time of stern work and self-denial. He took poor lodgings. He scrimped himself in everything but the bare necessaries of life. He spent on himself exactly eight shillings a week. He could not, he wrote, do with less. He scraped and pinched, remembering how ill his father could afford his keep.

When he could get extra work he took it home at nights to his poor rooms and sat up late over it, often ill and weary. In a month he could make a quadrant better than any of the other apprentices. And so he struggled on against loneliness and headache and depression. It was rarely safe to venture out at night at that time in London, for sailor press-gangs were abroad. No able-bodied man was spared. In one night they took as many as 1,000 men. Sitting as he did close to the shop door when at work, he was often exposed to cold, and caught rheumatic pains which did not leave him for many a day. After a year of this he went home to Greenock, in his possession some tools and instruments, and in his hands and brain a mighty store of skill and knowledge.