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Page 79
Indeed, there was some ground for supposing that Isaac would devote
himself to the manufacture of clocks; since he had already made one, of
a kind which nobody had ever heard of before. It was set a-going, not by
wheels and weights, like other clocks, but by the dropping of water.
This was an object of great wonderment to all the people roundabout; and
it must be confessed that there are few boys, or men either, who could
contrive to tell what o'clock it is, by means of a bowl of water.
Besides the water-clock, Isaac made a sun-dial. Thus his grandmother was
never at a loss to know the hour; for the water-clock would tell it in
the shade, and the dial in the sunshine. The sun-dial is said to be
still in existence at Woolsthorpe, on the corner of the house where
Isaac dwelt. If so, it must have marked the passage of every sunny hour
that has elapsed, since Isaac Newton was a boy. It marked all the famous
moments of his life; it marked the hour of his death; and still the
sunshine creeps slowly over it, as regularly as when Isaac first set it
up.
Yet we must not say that the sun-dial has lasted longer than its maker;
for Isaac Newton will exist, long after the dial--yea, and long after
the sun itself--shall have crumbled to decay.
Isaac possessed a wonderful faculty of acquiring knowledge by the
simplest means. For instance, what method do you suppose he took, to
find out the strength of the wind? You will never guess how the boy
could compel that unseen, inconstant, and ungovernable wanderer, the
wind, to tell him the measure of its strength. Yet nothing can be more
simple. He jumped against the wind; and by the length of his jump, he
could calculate the force of a gentle breeze, a brisk gale, or a
tempest. Thus, even in his boyish sports, he was continually searching
out the secrets of philosophy.
Not far from his grandmother's residence there was a windmill, which
operated on a new plan. Isaac was in the habit of going thither
frequently, and would spend whole hours in examining its various parts.
While the mill was at rest, he pryed into its internal machinery. When
its broad sails were set in motion by the wind, he watched the process
by which the mill-stones were made to revolve, and crush the grain that
was put into the hopper. After gaining a thorough knowledge of its
construction, he was observed to be unusually busy with his tools.
It was not long before his grandmother, and all the neighborhood, knew
what Isaac had been about. He had constructed a model of the windmill.
Though not so large, I suppose as one of the box-traps which boys set to
catch squirrels, yet every part of the mill and its machinery was
complete. Its little sails were neatly made of linen, and whirled round
very swiftly when the mill was placed in a draught of air. Even a puff
of wind from Isaac's mouth, or from a pair of bellows, was sufficient to
set the sails in motion. And--what was most curious--if a handful of
grains of wheat were put into the little hopper, they would soon be
converted into snow-white flour.
Isaac's playmates were enchanted with his new windmill. They thought
that nothing so pretty, and so wonderful, had ever been seen in the
whole world.
"But, Isaac," said one of them, "you have forgotten one thing that
belongs to a mill."
"What is that?" asked Isaac; for he supposed, that, from the roof of the
mill to its foundation, he had forgotten nothing.
"Why, where is the miller?" said his friend.
"That is true!--I must look out for one," said Isaac; and he set himself
to consider how the deficiency should be supplied.
He might easily have made the miniature figure of a man; but then it
would not have been able to move about, and perform the duties of a
miller. As Captain Lemuel Gulliver had not yet discovered the island of
Lilliput, Isaac did not know that there were little men in the world,
whose size was just suited to his windmill. It so happened, however,
that a mouse had just been caught in the trap; and, as no other miller
could be found, Mr. Mouse was appointed to that important office. The
new miller made a very respectable appearance in his dark gray coat. To
be sure, he had not a very good character for honesty, and was suspected
of sometimes stealing a portion of the grain which was given him to
grind. But perhaps some two-legged millers are quite as dishonest as
this small quadruped.
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