PLAN No. 427. PEANUT VENDING MACHINE
A Baker City, Oregon, young man made a nice living and a surplus by buying several peanut-vending machines and placing them on prominent corners of his town, as near the moving-picture shows as possible. The machines were of the penny-in-the-slot order, and yielded a small handful of peanuts when a cent was inserted and a button pressed.
Of course, others in his town also sold peanuts, but he had a novel way of treating his, and soon secured the peanut trade. He bought his peanuts in considerable quantities from wholesale grocers in a large city, and prepared them by placing a small amount of butter in a large dish, then put the peanuts in. The butter would boil up and cover the peanuts, and roast them to perfection. This butter could be used repeatedly. Then he would stir a teaspoonful of glucose in a bushel of peanuts, and throw on the necessary amount of salt, the glucose causing the salt to stick.
A neat card calling attention to the superiority of his special brand of peanuts did the business, and he was kept busy roasting the peanuts and filling the vending machines.
These machines paid him a net profit from $35 to $50 a week.