THE INCORPORATORS 181 
while waiting for some new opening, he occupied himself by 
constructing a printing press and publishing a small newspaper. 
At the age of eighteen he resolved to leave his native village and 
seek his fortune in the world. Accompanied by two friends, he 
made his way down the Juniata River to Harrisburg in a boat 
which he had constructed as a model of a man-of-war, and hence 
proceeded to Philadelphia. Here he obtained employment for a 
short period as a watchmaker and afterwards as an engraver. 
Later he became associated with Isaiah Lukens, a noted 
machinist, and at this time constructed an astronomical clock 
with a compensating pendulum and an escapement of his own 
devising, and also constructed the town clock of Philadelphia. 
His inventive ingenuity led to his election to membership in 
the Franklin Institute, where he came into contact with many 
prominent men of science. Having resolved to visit London, he 
accumulated savings sufficient for the purpose and about the 
year 1831 proceeded on his journey. The banking house in 
which he had deposited his money stopped payment soon after his 
arrival in London, and he was compelled to seek employment. 
He found an opening in the recently-established institution of 
practical science known as the Adelaide Gallery, where new 
scientific instruments and apparatus were exhibited by inventors 
and manufacturers. Here Saxton quickly rose to notice by a 
series of inventions, some of them of practical importance and 
others interesting as ingeniously devised scientific toys. Among 
these was a large magnet, a diving bell, an ingenious toy known 
as “the paradoxical head,” and a series of miniature vessels 
moved by concealed clock work. Having made the acquaintance 
of a number of prominent English engineers and mechanicians, 
he was introduced into the Royal Institution and entered into 
friendly relationships with Michael Faraday. Faraday had 
already discovered induction currents, but it remained for Sax- 
ton to invent an instrument to make their effects manifest. This 
he did in an ingenious manner, and by means of the instrument 
which he constructed he decomposed water, exhibited a power- 
ful spark, and an electrical light between carbons. The instru- 
