But when it is made up into useful articles, iron may be worth more than a corresponding weight of gold. A bar of iron, for example, worth five dollars, is worth ten when made into horseshoes, fifty-five dollars when made into needles, three thousand dollars when made into penknife blades, and twenty-five thousand dollars when made into balance springs for watches.
|
 |
John Gutenberg and the Invention of Printing
Gutenberg was born about the year 1400, at Mainz, a German city on the Rhine, near Frankfort. His parents were of noble blood, and people of means, who took a prominent part in the affairs of the city. Nothing is known of Gutenberg's boyhood days, other than that they were passed amid scenes of strife between the common people and the nobility.
|
|
When John Gutenberg was a boy, it was thought beneath the dignity of one of noble birth to do any ordinary labor, or to learn a trade. Despite this belief, he [103] learned not one, but two trades. He learned the art of cutting and polishing precious stones, and of mirror making.
|
 |
Samuel F. B Morse & the Invention of the Telegraph
Samuel Finley Breese Morse was born in 1791, at Charlestown, Massachusetts. He was given the best education that was to be had at the time. When seven years old he was sent away from home, to a famous private school, Phillips Academy. There he prepared for Yale University, then Yale College, entering with the class of 1807, and completing the course in 1810.
|
 |
Alexander Graham Bell & Invention of the Telephone
Alexander Graham Bell was born at Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1847. He was educated at the Royal High School of Edinburgh, and also attended the University of Edinburgh and the University of London. From boyhood, he was taught at home by his father, about sound and oral speech, and he also received training in music. When he was more than sixty years old, he wrote the following account of his early experiences.
|
 |
Orville and Wilbur Wright & Invention of the airplane
The Wright brothers were born at Dayton, Ohio. They were always interested in mechanical things, and owned and conducted a successful shop for the repair of bicycles. Their attention was first called to the flying machine by reading, in 1896, of the death of Lilienthal. They began to work on a flying machine as a mere matter of sport.
|
|
The Wright brothers were born at Dayton, Ohio. They were always interested in mechanical things, and owned and conducted a successful shop for the repair of bicycles. Their attention was first called to the flying machine by reading, in 1896, of the death of Lilienthal. They began to work on a flying machine as a mere matter of sport.
|
|
