1875.] ODi) [Sellers. 



study. He pursued such knowledge as he needed, because he did need i^, 

 and for its use to him he loved it. The varied incidents of his life abroad, 

 the persons with whom he came in contact, aided his mental culture. His 

 manual skill secured his advancement in the workshop. The knowl- 

 edge he needed was obtainable from daily observations only ; it was not 

 written in any book ; mere skill as a workman would not give him this 

 knowledge, but it did give him opportunities of observation, and he was 

 ready to avail himself of the fund of information so collected. His 

 opinion in the matter of the education of mechanics has weight and 

 needs careful consideration. He had but to point to his own car. er as an 

 example to prove the rule he laid down. There are comparatively few 

 of the youths of the present day who care to go through the years of 

 apprentice life. The tendency of all modern schooling is to make trades- 

 men of them, not mechanics. Of these few who from strong inclinations 

 would lead a mechanic's life but a still smaller proportion can find places 

 in the work-shops of the land. Hence the need of schools that may take 

 the place of these work-shops and give to our young men the very knowl- 

 edge that Mr. Harrison claimed they most needed. He did not believe 

 that mere manual skill would insure success ; he knew that much learn- 

 ing was needed, but he believed that knowledge was within the reach of 

 every one who would diligently seek it. He says of himself that while 

 quick to learn at school and was in some branches at the head of his class, 

 yet strange to say he never wrote a composition at school, and did not 

 write his first letter until after he was twenty years of age. 



So far as technical education was needed by him in his career as a 

 locomotive-builder, it must be borne in mind that it was in that direction 

 unobtainable when he most needed it. No books were yet written to guide 

 him ; the locomotive-engine was a new thing, railroads were yet young. 

 His mind grew with the progress of the art, and he did his full share in 

 that progress. Had he continued to the end of bis life at the same work be 

 would have still grown with his work, and would doubtless have still been 

 a ma>>ter-mind in that direction. But it must be remembered that the work 

 he did and that others have done in advancing the mechanic arts, makes 

 now more learning needed on the part of one who would take up engineer- 

 ing as a science at the place where he and they left off. 



Towards the close of his life, Mr. Harrison turned hia attention towards 

 recording some of his thoughts and experiences. After writing some 

 verses, entitled "The Iron Worker and King Solomon," intended for the 

 amusement and instruction of his children, and designed to impress their 

 minds with the " value of wliat is but too frequently thought to be very 

 humble labor," he published a folio volume of over two hundred pages, 

 containing this poem and some fugitive pieces accoaapanied by his auto- 

 biography, and many interesting incidents of life in Russia, also all the 

 leading particulars of the invention of his boiler. He wrote a paper on 

 the part taken by Philadelphians in the invention of the locomotive, an 

 account of the completion and opening of the bridge over the Neva in 



