Mechanical Bent of Mind
Science, physics and
chemistry – those were subjects too remote for the rural scholar. Mechanical
knowledge had to be gleaned from experience, which was where young Henry got his. His
first experiment was water - wheel, connected with an old coffee mill, which had been made
fast to a nearby fence. A rake handle was the shaft and power was obtained by blocking the
country ditch. Another early experiment was the operation of a turbine from a boiler. From
a very early age, engines fascinated him. He often rode on his father’s wagon to the
carding mill at Plymouth, hauling loads of wool, or he made a daylong trip to Detroit with
loads of hay and grain. On such one trip, he met a traction engine chugging along the
road. While the other men drew up to quiet the horses and chat, Henry studied the
mechanism. It was his first glimpse of a self-propelled vehicle; it took him into
automotive transportation later on. Many years later, an attorney cross-examined him on
the witness stand regarding his observation.
"How many revolutions a minute did the engine make ?"
"About 200, I suppose."
"Why do you suppose ? Don’t you know ?"
"Because I never counted them."
Why do you guess 200 ?"
"Because I asked the man running it, how fast the engine could go, and he told me 200 turns a minute. I have never forgotten it."
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