Parts of the first steamboat ever run in America were set up in the vestry of a church in Philadelphia by Fitch.
McCormick began to make his famous reaper in a grist-mill.

The first model dry-dock was made in an attic.

Clark, the founder of Clark University of Worcester, Mass., began his great fortune by making toy wagons in a horse shed.

Farquhar made umbrellas in his sitting-room, with his daughter's help, until he sold enough to hire a loft.

Edison began his experiments in a baggage car on the Grand Trunk Railroad when a newsboy.
Michael Angelo found a piece of discarded Carrara marble among waste rubbish beside a street in Florence, which some unskilful workman had cut, hacked, spoiled, and thrown away.