In the year 1880, a young farmer boy entered a machine shop in Aurora, Illinois, to work as an apprentice. His faded blue trousers tucked inside heavy boots, Frank Vanderlip stood at his lathe for ten hours every day, beads of sweat glistening on his high forehead. Sometimes his eyes would wander to a streak of sunlight that had fastened onto the door sill, and he knew that outside lay a world of opportunity...