Certain, I am, that their sense never made much impression on me, for, when questioned by the teacher, I was always sent to the bottom of the class, though apparently I had learned my exercise to perfection.
"When I was twelve years old, I made the acquaintance of a very ingenious boy, who came to our school.

Samuel Bridge was a born mechanic.

Though only a year older than myself, such was his ability in the use of tools, that he could construct a model of any machine that he saw.

He awakened in me a love of mechanical construction, and together we made models of colliery winding-frames, iron-rolling mills, trip-hammers, and water-wheels.

Some of them were not mere toys, but constructed to scale, and were really good working models.