NICHOLAS ARNOLD, TOOLMAKER

Fictionization of actual people and events, solidish sort of reading for boys interested in origins of industrial machinery in America. Thirteen year old Nicholas gets a chance to apprentice himself to a Pawtucket ironmonger and finds himself in the very beginning of power spinning when it was smuggled into this country during the English industrial revolution. With his dead father's unfinished invention of multiple manufacturing machines the basis of his secret ambition, he makes the most of opportunities that come his way. He gets into trouble and out again; he meets Jefferson, sees Washington, works with Eli Whitney, and eventually plays a part in supplying the government with guns.