He bought a complete outfit, consisting of a vulcanizer, screw-press, assorted type, etc., for $25, and as he had learned to set type in the office of the local weekly paper, the business was easily learned. Here is the way he started:
Set up the desired name and address in common type, oil the type and place a paper guard about half an inch high around the form; now mix plaster of paris to the proper consistency, pour on the type and allow it to set. Have your vulcanized rubber all ready prepared in long strips the proper width, and about 1⁄8 of an inch thick, and cut off the size of the intended stamp. Remove the plaster cast from the type, and place both the cast and the rubber in a screw-press; apply sufficient heat to thoroughly soften the rubber, then turn down the screw hard and let it remain until the rubber receives the exact impression of the cast and becomes cold, when it is removed, neatly trimmed with a sharp knife, and cemented to the handle ready for use.
The inks to be used with rubber stamps, he made as follows:
Aniline blue, water sol., 1 B. 3 parts; distilled water, 10 parts; pyroligneous acid, 10 parts; alcohol, 10 parts; glycerine, 70 parts. The blue should be well rubbed with the water, and the glycerine gradually added; when the blue is dissolved, the other ingredients are added. This makes a fine blue ink. Other colors may be produced by substituting for the blue any one of the following: Methyl violet, 3 B. 3 parts. Nigrosin W (for blue black), 4 parts. Vesuvius B (for brown), 5 parts. To make a superior red ink, dissolve 1⁄4 oz. of carmine in 2 ozs. of strong water of ammonia, and add 1 dram of glycerine and 3⁄4 oz. of dextrin.
He not only supplied rubber stamps to his home town but a little ad. in the local paper brought orders from other towns, and he soon had all the business he could handle.
PLAN No. 350. PICTURE FRAMING
In a small Illinois town, where there was no competition from the big city concerns that claim to do this work for practically nothing, an elderly gentleman who had formerly been employed by a big picture-framing house in Chicago built up a nice little business by framing pictures and doing his work reasonably.
He rented space in the rear of a news depot, and bought a well selected assortment of mouldings from his old firm at wholesale prices. He purchased a mitre box, saw, hammer, glue-pot and some small brads, in the use of which he was very skillful, and arranged with a dealer to have glass cut any desired size at a reasonable rate.
Having done a little quiet soliciting among the people of the town and surrounding country, aided by a modest but tasty display of mouldings and finished frames in the show window of the place, he secured a large number of orders. His work was skillfully done and his charges were reasonable, which brought him a steady business.
It made him an excellent living, and he had no fears of losing his position, a fate which often falls to a man as soon as his hair begins to turn grey. He had a business of his own.