. >> eldridge johnson was a delaware boy. he was born in wilmington, but soon at the age of three, he moved to dover. his family decided in the mid 20th century in the 1960s, it would be nice to have a memorial to him. this is why this was created in 1965 and opened to the public in 1967. to tell his story and to get a message out that this delaware native invented this spring motor that would take the flat disk machine to fruition and make it a success. >> as he was growing up here in dover, they didn't really do that well in school. he was such a genius that i think when you are young, you can pay attention and he was told growing up he would not be smart enough to go to college. instead of trying to make that happen, they decided to apprentice him. he did live with an aunt up there. in that process, he learned an awful lot about what it took to have his own business. he was able to buy a machine shop in camden, new jersey and went from wire stitching all the way up through repairing machines. he got good at that trade and

. ♪ >>> eldridge johnson was a delaware boy.e was born in wilmington, but soon at the age of 3 he moved to dover, and his family decided in the mid 20th century, in the 1960s that it would be nice to have a memorial to him. so that is why this museum was created in 1965. it opened to the public in 1967 to tell his story and to get the message out that this delaware native invented the spring motor that would take the flat disk machine to fruition and make it a success. ♪ >> er johnson, as he was growing up here in dover didn't really do that well in school, but he was such a genius that i think when you're young, it's really hard to do well in school and pay attention, and he was actually told, growing up, that he would not be smart enough to go to college. so, instead of trying to make that happen, his parents decided to apprentice him to a machinist in philadelphia. so he did live with an aunt up there, and in that process, he learned an awful lot about what it took to have his own business. and eventually, he was able to buy