Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 August 1895 — A LUCKY ACCIDENT. [ARTICLE]

A LUCKY ACCIDENT.

Why a “ Jackstone ” Makar Turned His Attention to Puzzles. As an example of how a remunerative specialty in hardware forced itself on a receptive and appreciative Yankee, the following incident will be of interest: Among the manufacturers small castings are often put in revolving cylinders with pickers or stars made of cast iron, having usually six points, the extremes of which are about an inch apart. They are also familiar to toy dealers, who sell them to children as The pickers, together with small castings, are put into the tumbling barrels, so that any particles of sand adhering may be removed and a better finish given the castings. A large and well-known New Eng** land concern, which, in addition to the other lines, manufactures screw wrenches largely, formerly used a peculiarly shaped malleable iron ferrule, with irregular openings at the four sides and circular openings at the two ends, weighing about an ounce. Some of these ferrules chanced to be a part of the contents in one of the tumbling barrels. When the barrel was opened the attendant noticed, what to him seemed almost increditable, that the picker with all its prongs was inside the ferrule, the openings of which were comparatively small. The observant mechanic logically concluded that as it had got in it could be got out again. The phenomenon was brought to the attention of parties who decided to apply the idea in a puzzle, and the result has been that the original manufacturers are now making the two parts under contract, in ton lots, while the first order is said to have netted a profit to the promoters of $1,700.