Making Tin Can Toys

MAKING TIN CAN TOYS
Army truck constructed entirely from used tin cans
MAKING TIN CAN TOYS
BY EDWARD THATCHER ORIGINATOR OF TIN CAN TOYS AND INSTRUCTOR OF METAL WORKING, TEACHERS COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY NEW YORK CITY, 1904-1919
DRAWINGS MADE AND THE AUTHOR’S MODELS PAINTED By ISABEL THATCHER
PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS PHILADELPHIA, U. S. A.

Tin can toys were invented after a fruitless search of the toy shops for a large tin locomotive. I had a long can in my shop at home that I thought could be very easily worked up into a toy locomotive boiler by adding a few fittings, such as a piece of tin rolled up into the form of a smokestack. Part of a small can could be used for a steam dome, or I could use the top part of a certain tooth-powder can, the distributor top of which would look very much like a whistle. A cocoa tin came in very handy for a cab, and a thumb-tack box served for a headlight. The wheels were made of can lids soldered together, and the toy locomotive was made, much to the joy of my very young son, who has had it in constant service for over a year, and it is still good for many trips at the end of a string.
I had always used tin cans for making such articles as water motors, glue pots, melting ladles, mooring buoys for model yachts, etc., but the locomotive was the first toy, made wholly from tin cans, that I had produced, and this suggested other toys. The steam roller was next made.
I found that the cans lend themselves very easily to the making of toys, so much of the work being already done.