My Power. (16/11/04 )
		I was born in February, 1847, in the busy port of Milan, Ohio. Moving with my family to Michigan seven years later, I was constantly yelled at by my over-worked teacher, who accused me of having a disruptive and self-centered attitude because of the endless questions I asked. I had a rather large forehead, which helped the school's case in diagnosing me with retardation. Mom, however, saw my physical differences as a sign of higher intelligence, and she quickly took me out of school and started teaching me at home. By the time I was eleven, it was all my parents could do to keep up with my growing thirst for knowledge. They found certain areas of my interest difficult to provide answers for, particularly the sciences, and finally resigned to teaching me how to use the public library's resources. I soon realized my passion for self-instruction; by the age of twelve, I had completed the World Dictionary of Science, the Sears' History of the World, and many of the Practical Chemistry volumes. I promoted Abe Lincoln feverishly during his presidential debates in 1860, and many of his supporters humoured me by letting me silently roam around press rooms. I started printing the main "scoops" in a small newspaper of my own with help from printers who were impressed by my ambition, which I sold in train cars with great success. I used the spare money to construct a modest chemical lab in my parent's basement. I had to keep some of the chemicals in a train locker when Mom started complaining of strange odors, and one day when the train lurched on a bad section of track, a stick of phosphorous fell out of my bag and ignited the train car. The conductor was furious, and struck me hard in the head, the consequences of which I would come to pay for later in life. He also banned me from selling my paper on the train, and I was confined to peddling on station platforms. I was on one of these platforms when the stationmaster's son wandered in front of an on-coming box-car one day. I managed to save him with a running dive that injured us both but prevented his certain death. This turned out to be arguably the most significant event of my life. The stationmaster rewarded my heroism by teaching me how to master Morse code, an admired and respected skill in that age of telegraphy. Mom's mind began failing her shortly after I completed my tutoring, and Dad hastily quit his job at the bank and was faced with foreclosing the homestead if things didn't improve. I worked twelve-hour days for six days a week for Western Union, but devoted all of my spare time to the ideas that swarmed like bees in my head. Six months later, I applied for and received my first patent. It was for a stylish "electric vote-recording" machine, but was fiercely rejected by the Massachusett's Legislature, who felt it would compromise the hopes of those that used the days spent manually counting votes to continue rallying thier causes. I moved to New York shortly after, arriving dejected and near starvation. Once again, I was blessed one day with being at the right place at the right time. I approached a frantic stockbroker in the city's financial district only minutes after begging for enough change to buy a coffee, and learned his critical "stock-ticker" had just broken. As luck would have it, I had been sleeping in the very same basement of the man's office building, and had done some snooping around. I stepped forward from the growing crowd, and in a few seconds had worked a loose spring back into place. I was hired by the office manager on the spot at a salary of $300 per month, twice the wage of the highest-paid electrician in the entire city. Within a few months, I was paid $40,000 for the patent to a more advanced stock-ticker constructed in my free time. A lot happened in the coming years. I set up a complete testing and development lab in New Jersey with profits from patent sales, the first such facility of its kind in the world. I was disappointed when Bell submitted his patent for the telephone in 1879 after being so close myself, but offset the defeat by inventing the first commercially-practical electric light bulb. Though considered a great accomplishment, I viewed it as only a stepping-stone for the grand and complex idea I would devote the coming years of my life to.
		Visit my other links: My Power II