A young man who thought he could afford amusement for many people at a good profit to himself, went to a wholesale drug store and bought a pound of metallic sodium. This he removed from the can and soaked it in lamp oil until soft, then dried it on a glass surface, and with a piece of lead pipe rolled it out into sheets about 1⁄8 of an inch thick. These he cut into sticks 3 inches long, and 31⁄2 inches wide, and put two sticks into a dram glass vial, labeled “Spit-Fire.” Moistening causes it to burn.
Taking one of these vials into a barber shop, a hotel lobby, a cigar stand or a crowd of people at a park, or a picnic, he would take a small piece of it and lay it on top of a pipeful of tobacco, then spit on it and the tobacco would light. A small particle of it dropped into a glass of water or into acid will burn. He offered this at 15 cents per bottle and sold them by hundreds to people who liked novel means of amusement. He also mounted the vials on cards containing a dozen each, and sold them to dealers for 75 cents per card.
One pound of metallic sodium is enough for 1,000 bottles, and the cost for vials, labels and corks is about $3.75, while the metallic sodium is not expensive. For 1,000 bottles, at 15 cents each, he received $150, so you can see the amount of profit in this plan.
PLAN No. 407. HOME SCENES FOR CALENDARS
A Spokane young man, who owned a good 5x7 camera, and knew how to use it, got the lowest quotations from publishing houses, on medium-size calendars of artistic designs, and from the samples sent him selected a line well adapted to the purpose for which he intended to use them.
Next, he took pictures of all the prominent business houses in the city, showing the names of the merchants occupying the ground floors, as well as the signs on some of the upper windows, with names and business of the occupants. Then pasting one of these photos on one of the calendars, he called upon the merchant, as well as all the other tenants of the building, and took orders for any number they required. These made an excellent advertising medium, and he received orders for many thousands of the calendars.
Later he went into the best residence districts and took pictures of all the homes, and, pasting a picture of each house on a calendar he called at the various places and sold them by the hundreds. Often he was called upon to take special pictures showing home scenes, such as children at play, on the lawns, family groups on the front veranda, interiors of homes, etc., and within a very few months his net income was over $50 a week.
PLAN No. 408. BRICKMAKER FOR U. S. SEE [PLAN No. 217]
PLAN No. 409. A MEDICAL GARDEN
Garden vegetable products having medical properties made a large income for a widow with several small children, and though it required considerable care, the returns were more than satisfactory, for the druggists bought all she could raise, at high prices.