How a Blacksmith Got Rich–The Story of Pullman–The Story of the Columbia Bicycle–A Recipe for a Fortune–A Mica Secret–How to Make Marble–Another Great Secret Given Away–Rubber as Good as Goodyear’s–A Way to Smash the Trusts–Wanted–A New Railroad Car–Sidney Smith’s “Wooden Pavement.”
Vast earnings accrue from manufactures, however the perfect returns for investments on this line are realized when the producer is ready to make a brand new article, or to make an previous article by improved means. David Maydole, a village blacksmith, was requested to make for a carpenter a hammer nearly as good as he may make it. He made a greater hammer than had ever earlier than been seen, and the carpenter’s mates all needed one. The village storekeeper ordered two dozen. A {hardware} vendor, passing by way of the place to promote his wares, left an order for all of the blacksmith may make. The hammer-maker constructed a big manufacturing facility, and this was the common-or-garden origin of the celebrated Maydole hammer, and the inspiration of an awesome fortune. Another fascinating chapter on manufacture is the “Story of Pullman,” which reads like a fairy story, however is all strictly true. Mr. Pullman started in a small way to build parlor automobiles, making one or two as an experiment. The touring public had been fast to understand the luxurious, and Mr. P. needed to enlarge his works repeatedly. He constructed the city of Pullman, which is now valued at $30,000,000, and the capital inventory which now has a market worth of $60,000,000, has paid dividends with the regularity of a authorities mortgage.
344. BICYCLE FACTORIESThese have proved veritable bonanzas throughout the previous few years. In 1878, Col. Albert A. Pike started the manufacture of bicycles, making fifty that yr. To-day he has an exceptional enterprise, using a capital of $5,000,000 using 4 factories in Hartford, Conn., and making 600 bicycles a day.
345. DOUBLE PROFIT FURSHere is a strategy to make a double revenue from the skins of animals: Soak the furs in limewater until the hair is loosened, then wash and dangle it as much as dry. Lay it on a board with the hair aspect up and apply an answer of glue, care being taken to not disturb the pure place of the hairs. When the glue is dry and laborious, maintain the hairs so firmly as to permit the pure pores and skin to be peeled off. Now you’ll be able to apply the unreal pores and skin by pouring over the hairs liquid India-rubber, boiled drying-oils, or different waterproof substances, which on drying will type a steady membrane supporting the hairs. The glue is then eliminated by steeping the fur in warm water. This plan has the double benefit that the fur so ready is moth-proof, and the previous pores and skin can be utilized for the manufacture of leather-based.
346. MICA SHEETSLarge sheets of mica command an awesome value. There are only some locations the place the mineral could be mined in sheets of 1 foot sq. or bigger, however the huge heaps of waste mica could be utilized by build up the sheets artificially. This could be accomplished by treating it with shellac. There are fortunes in waste mica quarries for individuals who know the best way to make the most of the numerous tons of fragments. The subject is particularly promising in North Carolina and Georgia, the place immense quarries abound.
347. ARTIFICIAL MARBLEThere is room for worthwhile funding within the manufacture of any article which is procured from nature at nice expense. This is the case with marble. It is scarce at greatest; the quarries are distant from the facilities of inhabitants, and the mining and transportation make it a really expensive article. Marble could be manufactured by imitating nature’s processes–the percolating of water by way of chalk. The standard verde vintage could be made by an utility of an oxide of copper. The slices of marble are then positioned in one other bathtub, the place they’re hardened and crystallized, popping out precisely like the actual article. In Italy, a nice black marble is produced from frequent white sandstone. The manufacture is carried on by the homeowners of the native gasworks, who thus reap a double revenue from their plant. Here is a touch for American producers.
348. ARTIFICIAL WHALEBONEWhalebone is in nice demand. It is price from $3 to $4 per pound. No synthetic substance has as but been discovered to take its place, however we’re certainly on the eve of that discovery. No one substance is on the similar time so laborious and so elastic, however experimenters will but discover a mixture which can reply the aim. One has already been discovered which pulls the excess demand when the real article can’t be obtained. The inventor who can advance one other step and produce an actual imitation may have the whalebone market in his arms. This subject is wealthy with prospects.
P. SSince writing the above we now have the key. Here it’s: Treat the rawhide with sulphide of sodium, take away the hair, immerse the cover twenty-six to thirty-four hours in a weak resolution of double sulphate of potassa, and stretch it upon a body or desk, so that it might not contract in drying. The desiccation is allowed to proceed in broad daylight, and the cover is then uncovered to a temperature of fifty to sixty levels. The affect of the sunshine, mixed with the motion of the double sulphate of potassa absorbed by the pores and skin, renders the gelatine insoluble in water, and prevents putrefaction, the moisture being utterly expelled. Thus ready, the pores and skin is submitted to a robust stress, which provides to it virtually the hardness and elasticity which characterize the real whalebone, with the benefit that earlier than or after the method of desiccation any coloration desired could also be imparted to it by way of a dye bathtub.
349. ARTIFICIAL INDIA RUBBERA man whereas experimenting not too long ago with cottonseed oil for the manufacturing of a varnish, obtained to his shock, not a varnish, however a rubber. By its use, with fifteen per cent. of real rubber, an article could be produced so precisely like the actual as to defy detection. The course of is so easy {that a} patent shouldn’t be obtainable. So, producers, the sphere is open. Rubber is excessive and in nice demand.
350. ARTIFICIAL CAMPHORHere is one other commerce secret. The real camphor is scarce. The synthetic is made in England, shipped to Hamburg, after which re-shipped to England as the actual article. Here is the way in which it’s made: Pass a present of dry hydrochloric acid fuel by way of spirits of turpentine cooled by a freezing combination. The liquid deposits crystals, that are dissolved in alcohol and precipitated by water. The separated crystals are drained and dried. They are completely colorless, with an odor like camphor. At the odd temperature, its vapor stress is enough to trigger it to chic like odd camphor in small good crystals within the bottles during which it’s preserved. It is insoluble in water, and gyrates when on the floor of that liquid like true camphor.
351. CAR BUILDINGSome day one other Pullman will come up, however with developments in automotive constructing in a completely totally different route. We quote from a current journal article: “The time is sure to come when a new railroad genius will arise and make an end of the game of brag between American general passenger agents. This reformer will probably substitute light and easily cleaned bamboo seats for those now in use; he will save a good deal of the money now spent in useless ornamentation, and spend it in better ventilation and lighting; and he is likely to design frames and trucks much lighter, and at least as strong and durable, as those which carry the average day car of the present time. It is possible, too, that he may accomplish a good result by lowering the center of gravity of the prevailing type of passenger car, thus preventing it from rolling at high rates of speed, and obviating the supposed necessity of placing two or three tons of old rails in the floor to keep it steady.” It is maybe for sure that such a person as Mr. Pullman or Mr. Wagner will develop into a multi-millionaire by way of this much-needed reform.
352. THE TRANSVERSE WOODEN PAVEMENTOne day the celebrated wit, Sidney Smith, was speaking with some vestrymen of the church of which he was a member about laying a wood pavement across the sacred edifice. “Well,” stated the well-known jester, “we have but to lay our heads together and the thing is done.” But here’s a pavement which some capitalists will sooner or later lay their heads (funds) collectively to provide, and it will likely be no joke. It has been ascertained that essentially the most sturdy pavement is produced from blocks of wooden sawed transversely about twelve inches in thickness. The bigger and smaller blocks are fitted collectively, the smaller interstices being stuffed with wood wedges. Here is an opportunity for some enterprising agency.
