FEENCH LEADEES IN EEFOEM 403 



June 24, 1788. But he had no liking for farming. He 

 w;is a born mechanic, and the despair of his industrious, 

 plodding lather. Owing to an unfortunate impediment 

 of speech, wliich in later years he overcame, the lad was 

 thrown much upon his own resources as a child. His 

 ingenuity was early shown, as when he secured charcoal 

 from the home fireplace for his experiments, and at thir- Apr 

 teen made an apple-paring machine which revolutionized ^""^'"^ 

 the drying of that much-valued fruit. At eighteen, a 

 brother having established a tack factory in Millbury, 

 Thomas was transferred from the farm to help in the ex- 

 tremely monotonous occupation of heading each object 

 by the blow of a hammer. It did not take his ingenious 

 mind long to elaborate a machine which made tacks 

 more rapidly than the ticking of a watch, and also made 

 them better than those made by hand — a machine in 

 which no essential improvements were made in more 

 than twenty years. Experts declared it ahnost perfect Tack Machine 

 from the start. This was pretty good for a stuttering 

 schoolboy, so long the butt of his Sutton associates. 

 This tack machine was sold for $5,000, only a fraction of 

 its real value ; and from the proceeds Thomas established 

 a shop in which he was able to continue his inventive 

 work unhindered. 



Up to this time, during scores of years there had been 

 no advance in the polishing of gun barrels. The rounded 

 part could be readily reached, but the flattened portions, 

 those at the breech where the stock was added, had to be 

 worked by hand, and it cost a dollar apiece properly to 

 finish them. There was an armory in Millbury, and the 

 proprietor learning of the genius in the confines of that 

 very town, sent for him and let him know the needs of 

 the occasion. Glancing along the lathe and beginning a 

 monotonous whistle, as was his wont when in a study, he oun-Barrei 

 soon evolved a simple improvement in the shape of a ^^"^ 

 cam motion, and the making of gun-barrels was simpli- 

 fied forever. 



