[1] It is recorded that John's father, also a cobbler, was a subscribing member to the library set up in the village by the Fenwick Weavers.

With access to this library, John pursued his interest in astronomy, mathematics, physics, and other disciplines that led to his career as an instrument maker of outstanding ability and achievement.

[1][3] Largely self-taught, he studied botany, learned several foreign languages, constructed a ‘velocipede’ or early bicycle, and experimented with the production of coal gas.

Astronomy held a particular fascination for him, so much so that he was prompted to construct, in his spare time in the years between 1823 and 1833, three working models of the solar system, known as orreries.

Such was the public interest that in 1869 a group of Glasgow businessmen led by William Walker bought the orrery for the city.