All About Inventions and Discoveries
The Romance of modern scientific and mechanical Achievements

144 All About Inventions laboratory. True, his springs were not ideal for the purpose, seeing that they were only flattened pieces of the springs which are used to actuate the mechanism of a clock, but they sufficed for his purpose. By the winter of 1874 Bell had reached a point beyond which he could not advance with the limited resources of his own laboratory. Accordingly, one day he set out to the workshop of Charles Williams, 109 Court Street, Boston, his idea being to have superior instruments built by expert hands to his designs. Williams’s workshop was the Mecca of all young inventors for miles around, because the owner was sympathetic and encouraging. He employed from forty to fifty hands, and possessed that rare attribute of being an excellent judge of men. If any of his employees manifested any desires to im- prove their mechanical knowledge he< allowed them to do so, and, moreover, was able to determine from close observation the particular channel of mechanics in which a workman excelled and betrayed the great- est enthusiasm. He encouraged his men to embrace the field which made the greatest appeal to their individual tastes, and at the same time placed a premium upon initiative among them. Among his employees was a young man who entered his service because he had grown dissatisfied with writing letters, book-keeping, and carpentering, at which he had earned his living since he was thir- teen. This young man’s name was Thomas Augustus Watson, whose education had been only that offered by the Salem public schools, supplemented by indi- vidual study at night. He had an intense love for science, especially mechanics and electrical engineer-