 The day after graduation from Harvard Worthen started working under the direction of George Rumford Baldwin measuring the flow of the water used at the Merrimac Mills.Worthen went with Baldwin to Boston and was employed in the surveys and brook measurements for an increased supply for the Jamaica Pond Water Works, a private enterprise for supplying Boston with water by gravity.He then returned to Lowell and under James B. Francis was engaged for some time in general hydraulic and mill work.