Читать книгу One Thousand Ways to Make a Living; or, An Encyclopædia of Plans to Make Money - Harold Morse Dunphy - Страница 228

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Only those who have used fireless cookers can have any adequate conception of their practical value, or realize the manifold advantages their use affords. But fireless cookers, as they are made and sold today, are prohibitive in price to many people, costing, as they do, from $12 to $30 each, according to the number of “burners,” and thousands who would be glad to have them are obliged to go without.

It was an intimate knowledge of this condition that prompted an enterprising citizen in California to supply these people with fireless cookers which he could make in his own woodshed, and supply them at less than one-third the prices asked for the “boughten” ones. Anyway, he decided to make a few and see what could be done in the matter of sales.

He purchased a quantity of lumber one inch thick, and this he cut up into sufficient lengths to make wooden boxes 18 inches wide, 16 inches deep, and 18, 30 and 40 inches in length, with a hinged cover of the same materials as the sides, ends and bottoms of the boxes. The 18-inch boxes were for one burner, the 30-inch for two burners, and the 40-inch for 3-burner cookers.

He placed a thick layer of excelsior all around the inside of the box, holding this in place with burlap, long, slender nails being driven through the burlap and excelsior into the wood of the sides and ends, while a thick cushion of burlap and excelsior was made to fit over the tops of the kettles, and cushions of the same kind, made in circular form, to fit closely around each kettle as it set in the box. The bottom of the box was also fitted with a thick cushion of the same material. On this bottom cushion was laid a thick piece of soapstone, upon which the kettles rested, and this, when heated on top of the stove or range upon which the food in the kettles had been partially cooked, completed the cooking and retained the heat for an indefinite period. The air spaces left in the corners next to the circular cushions, he filled with excelsior.

He made arrangements with a wholesale hardware house for a special price on granite kettles of the proper size, in lots of 100 or more, so as to avoid the misfits that would result when housewives attempted to fit their own kettles into the circular spaces made to hold them, and he was thus able to make them uniform in size.

In order to first test the merits of his product, he made one of the 3-burner cookers and gave it a thorough trial in his own home. The demonstration was most convincing, and proved that the fireless cooker which he could turn out at a cost of not to exceed $3, was just as practical and effective as those made by the large manufacturers.

The 1-burner cookers, which cost him $2 to make, he decided to sell for $5; the 2-burner kind, costing him $2.50, at $7, and the 3-burner ones, that cost him $3, including the kettles, at $8.

He began by thoroughly canvassing his own town, and was surprised at the large number of orders received. The income from this work afforded him a very good living.