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ON THE AIR: NJN to broadcast history documentary Oct. 4

    On Monday at 9 p.m., New Jersey Network (NJN) will give the debut broadcast of “Mechanic To Millionaire: The Peter Cooper Story,” an hour-long documentary on the life of the remarkable American inventor, philanthropist and visionary Peter Cooper (1791-1883), whose legacy has grown obscure with time.
    The documentary has been produced and directed by Janet Gardner of the Rocky Hill-based Gardner Documentary Group Inc., with support from the New Jersey Historical Commission, the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, the Maryland Humanities Council, and Humanities Council of South Carolina.
    “The importance of this film is not only to revive the memory of a remarkable leader who gave so much to us, but to listen to his words and learn from him. We are confident that audiences will be stirred by Peter Cooper’s radical vision of social justice and remarkable example … We can all learn from this self-taught entrepreneur whose ingenuity and social conscience were once the toast of New York City and the nation he helped to build,” Ms. Gardner has stated.
    In the spirit of the Industrial Revolution, Peter Cooper married technological innovation withentrepreneurship. In Baltimore in 1830, he “cobbled together” America’s first steamlocomotive, the “Tom Thumb.” In the 1850s, as one of the country’s largest ironmasters,Cooper-Hewitt pioneered the manufacture and use of wrought iron I-beams that becamethe standard for multi-storied construction.
    With little formal schooling, he founded The Cooper Union in New York City with a Great Hall, realizinghis dream of free education for working people, based on merit.
    On the Web: www.petercooperstory.com, www.gardnerdocgroup.com.