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KIDDIE KAR MAKES INVENTOR A MILLION 53
days later every car was gone, and most
of them had been sold to women from
Plainfield, New Jersey, who had seen the
one which the first woman to buy had
brought home with her.
"Of course we went to work as fast
as we could. Father improved the car
by making the board in the shape of a
figure 8 so that a youngster could pick
it up between his legs and walk either
up or down stairs with it. Then he went
to work on machines which could be
adapted to our form of manufacture. In
the meantime we went to work by hand.
man and woman for whom we had room
in the shop, and all the time father
worked his head off on the machines
which would increase our production
and cheapen our costs. He succeeded.
"A small wooden device such as ours
might seem simple to make, but there are
twenty operations. Father devised a
machine to do every one of them, and
each machine saved us a cent on every
piece of work that it did. He procured
application patents so that we need not
fear competition.
"The first year of operation did not,
THE INTERIOR OF THE WHITE FACTORY AT BENNINGTON
This plant was transformed trom a stereoscope factory into a live manufacturing plant where just this one
children's vehicle toy now is made.
"We made a profit that was interesting,
to say the least, making the car by
hand. Orders came in until we had
enough at our rate of production to keep
us busy for a year. In my old business
the most expensive executive department
was that devoted to collections. In this
venture I had to employ expensive experts
to return money on orders which
we could not hope to fill. The town was
swept to prosperity on the demand for
ni)- 'invention'. We employed every
of course, result in large profits because
we spent the first $125,000 on machines
to help along. But the town itself was
put back upon its feet and we had no
fear of the wolf. Our production now
is fifteen hundred a day and the average
retail price is two and a half dollars.
The reason for our success is simply
that we have supplied a demand. We
have manufactured a product which has
actually produced a new method of
transportation, for children, at least."