George Washington's World - James Watt

James Watt was very, very clever.  He would try to help his father, who worked with iron and invented things (but he didn't sell much); but even if there were 14 men helping his father, which there were, he was still the pride of the shop.  The 14 men would point at him and say, "Look at what wee Jamie has made today!  He has a fortune at his fingertips..."

It would make one laugh to hear the story of how James watched the kettle.

Once, when everybody was enjoying a cup of tea, James just stared at the tea kettle itself.  His aunt said, "James!  James!  That is not the way to have fine manners!"

James ignored her.  Instead of listening to her and turning away from the kettle, he held his spoon in front of the kettle and watched the steam collect on it.   After quite a while of studying the steam, he lifted up his head and saw everyone looking at him and then shyly smiled.  Everybody laughed.

There was a beautiful working school in that very town where he lived where he could have gone to school, but his father's business was so bad that he couldn't afford to go.  Instead, he traveled around the country trying to find a place where he could work for one year.  The places where he found the most masterful work would not accept him.  They said, "Go away!  Apprentices here cannot sign on for just one year!  To work here, you need to apprentice for seven years!"

Finally, he did find one master that would give him work for a year in return for 20 pounds.  But to do that, he had to sit on the worst bench, nearest the door.  This was horrible because in the winter he froze, and in the summer it was terribly hot.  In the winter, it was bad but he could always add more clothes to keep warm.  But in the summer it was awful - sometimes, he hardly got a drink of water all day.

After the year, he went home.  He arrived home half sick but full of hope.  He arrived to find that the Guild of Hammerman would not let him work because he hadn't fulfilled his seven years of apprenticing.  They would not let him open a shop.  But a friend of his, a professor, helped him.  The professor arranged for the University to provide him with a small room from which he could sell his inventions.  At last, his dream had come true.