Thinking Small Read Online Free PDF

the only man in the entire town whose house and workshop were lit with electric light.
    It had not been easy to keep the surprise from his father, but Ferdinand had waited until everything was working properly before he’d taken it downstairs and put it in place, unveiling it that night for his brother and sisters and mother, knowing hisfather was on his way home. He’d built the entire system, including the generator, from scratch, with the help of nothing more than a curious mind, the knowledge that comes from trial and
     error, and whatever intuition had been gifted to him from who knows where. It was astounding, not only to his family but also to the town. Anton told his son that he could attend night classes at the local technical school, if he wished. Ferdinand was thrilled.
    Ferdinand Porsche as a boy in the early 1890s, with the electrical system he built from scratch for his family’s home.
(photo credit 5.1)
    As Ferdinand got older, however, he began to wonder about bigger things, about Vienna and the innovations being undertaken there. His classes at the village school were not quite able to satisfy his curiosity. In fact, sometimes he learned just as much by studying the work being done at Ginzkey’s 1 carpet factory, the place where he’d had his first
     encounter with electric light. Ginzkey’s business had become an impressive and thrivingindustry by then, and his influence in the area around Maffersdorf was considerable. Anton Porsche respected Mr. Ginzkey immensely and listened to him when he spoke about the prospects he saw for Ferdinand. It was perhaps time to send him to Vienna, Ginzkey said. Anton agreed, and thus when Ferdinand Porsche turned eighteen, he was allowed to leave Maffersdorf and go to
     the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s thriving capital.
    Mr. Ginzkey, having full confidence in Ferdinand, set up a job for him with a company that manufactured electrical equipment and machinery. Ferdinand fell into step immediately upon starting his new job, working long hours, sometimes sneaking into classes at the Vienna Technical University at night. Ferdinand knew he had none of the usual engineering degrees expected of someone in his position at the time, but he was so good at what he did that he advanced quickly
     nonetheless; people often talked of his “sixth sense.” By the time he was twenty-two, the obsessive young man had already worked his way up to becoming a company manager. He’d also started thinking more and more about the newest invention in transportation: the motor car.
    Ferdinand Porsche (far rigiht) during a learning session on his first job in Vienna at Bella Egger 2 . He is the only one taking notes.
(photo credit 5.2)
    Around the same time that Ferdinand Porsche had been born in 1875, Europe had experienced a turn toward industrialization, and automotive pioneers had begun developing internal combustion engines and connecting them to vehicles that were not cars so much as carts, but that were nevertheless a large step forward from the usual horse-and-carriage method of mobility. By the time Ferdinand Porsche was an adult, automobiles had come a long way: Those early
     gasoline-powered carts had grown, widened, and attached themselves to four large wooden wheels. 3 Now people could ride in seats on the carts and steer; they could also control their speed. Still, the majority of the population detested the motor car’s noise and its rude way of taking up the entire street. Few people took them very seriously in those early decades; few
     considered them much more than an upper-class toy. The horse and carriage still ruled the roads.
    But then, as the twentieth century began, the automobile began to generate more excitement and mystique, even among those who were not wealthy enough to own one. One reason for this was the establishment of the auto race in 1894: The very first one ran in France from Paris to Rouen and then from Rouen to Bordeaux. People heard about it and came out to