was made. It has always been one of my favorite 

 tools. As I look back over that long period. I can see 

 Brandt as helper doing more towards its production 

 than the head hammerman. 



I thought it would be an easy task to make a good 

 mechanical draughtsman of a man who, with such 

 facility, carved with his pocket-knife the forms he 

 wanted to produce with his hammer, but I was mis- 

 taken. He took hold with great earnestness, handled 

 his instruments well, and soon learned to copy line 

 drawings with neatness and accuracy, but it was 

 purely mechanical, for he did not understand the 

 simplest drawings. He said he was often mortified 

 by not being able to understand sketches. A verbal 

 explanation of any portion of a machine was clear to 

 him, but the moment a sketch in illustration was made 

 all was confusion. 



It was by mere accident that I discovered his mental 

 difficulty. All his thinking was, if I may so express it, 

 full size. The trouble was in reducing to a given scale 

 and carrying both in his mind at the same time. Up 

 to the point of this discovery it would take pages to 

 describe the various devices I resorted to, but now all 

 was plain sailing. By working him on full-size draw- 

 ings, it was not long before he understood them and 

 became quite proficient. 



But some ludicrous things occurred. I will cite but 

 one, premising that he was full of a dry kind of humor, 

 that, at times, was difficult to distinguish from earnest. 

 He showed me a full-size drawing of a crank, made on 

 thin sheet iron and asked me to reduce it to half size. 



"Why don't you do it?" I asked. "You have two 

 centers on a line." 



"Yes, I know, and I have done it, but it don't look 

 right. I want you to do it." 



I did so, and he took it, remarking that it looked too 

 small. 



I said: "Measure from center to center, and you 

 will find it right." 



"Yes, but" — and away he walked, and soon came 

 back with both cut out, saying: "I have weighed both. 

 There is something wrong. The half-size does not 

 weight one-fourth as much as the full-size!" - 1 ' 1 



Tables of areas and superfices only perplexed him. 

 It was evident that the books I gave him to study only 

 confused him. At one time he became very despond- 

 ent. He said he felt his own ignorance; that he was 

 too old to begin, too old to go to school, but if I 

 could find him a private teacher, that could be trusted 

 and keep his secret, he would make a trial, although 

 over 40 years of age. If he could only be taught how 

 to learn, he thought he could do the rest; but he was 

 sensitive on the subject, and did not want it known 

 that at his time of life he was beginning. 



My friend, John C. Trautwine, at that time in 

 Strickland's office, became much interested in Brandt, 

 and together we consulted Prof. James P. Espy, 220 who 

 had been Mr. Trautwine's mathematical preceptor, 

 who, after an interview or two with Brandt, without 

 his knowing the object, agreed with us that the first 

 step in instruction must be entirely oral. He thought 

 among his pupils he could find a capable one that 

 would devote two or three evenings a week to the 

 work. This was done. Brandt remained in Philadel- 

 phia from the fall of 1828 until the spring of 1829. 

 During these months his studies were privately and 

 profitably pursued. In the spring he moved to our 

 card works in Delaware county, 221 but his wife was 

 discontented. They were what is known as Pennsyl- 

 vania Dutch. In October 1829 the partnership was 

 dissolved, and he returned to Lancaster and resumed 

 his old business of blacksmith. 



When, in the fall of 1833, I learned that he had 

 taken the position of foreman of the Pennsylvania 

 Railroad shops at Parkesburg, I went to see him. He 

 then said he was afraid he had given way to the per- 

 suasion of Mr. James Cameron, at that time chairman 

 of the board of Canal Commissioners, and feared he 

 would not succeed. I found his office walls covered 

 with working models of eccentrics, rock shafts and 

 steam valves, all full size. When I rallied him on ad- 

 hering to full size, he replied: "It is best, I think, that 

 way." 



After showing me his models, he called my atten- 

 tion to the exhaust of the English locomotive I had 



21!) The reader who does not immediately see the point of this 

 tale is reminded that when all dimensions of a plane figure are 

 reduced by one-half, the area becomes one-fourth of the original 

 area. 



220 James Pollard Espy (1 785-1860) was employed in Wash- 

 ington as a meteorologist from 1842 until his death. In collab- 

 oration with the Smithsonian Institution he collected tele- 

 graphic information on weather data at various stations, making 

 possible the mapping and forecasting of weather conditions. 

 Sec Dictionary of American Biography. The Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion owns an oil portrait of Espy. 



221 Cardington. 



170 



