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Let a Franchise Put Money in Your Pocket

If you’re an inventor with a product to sell, or a man who wants his own business, franchising could be your way to wealth.

BY JAMES JOSEPH

WHETHER you’re an inventor who has brainstormed a marketable product, or a fellow yearning to plunge into a business of your own, experts nowadays are apt to prescribe the same means of success: franchising.

Franchising your brainstormed product or service and you lease its use—and marketing —to dozens, even hundreds, of in-business-for-themselves franchisees, dealers who pay you a use fee or royalty, or both, for the privilege of cashing in on your success-laden idea. (Franchise fees range from $10 to $100,000, with the average from $6000 to $10,000; royalties run from 1% to 10% of gross sales.)
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How a Sign is Painted

A water-color drawing, scaled one inch to the foot, is squared off by the pictorial painter for his own guidance in putting such outsize art work on a board with raw paint. This is shown below, overlaid on an outline sketch of picture and lettering that is keyed to serve as a color chart.
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Find Your Fortune in a New Career

America is back to the era where that knocking on your door could be opportunity.

By Lester David

NOT too long ago, Mel Hedrick was a gangling farm kid who rose sleepily way ahead of the sun to do the chores on his dad’s farm in West Salem, Ill. But Mel had an idea that he wanted to be a scientist. So he went to grade and high school in his home town, then to the state university.

Finally, as a full-fledged man of science, Mel got a job with the central research division of the Monsanto Chemical Co. in Dayton, Ohio. Right off the bat, he was asked what he’d like to do most. “Something helpful to farmers,” Mel replied. So he was signed to research work on soil conditioners.
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our business is GOING TO THE DOGS

By Bob Swaner

I never realized until I joined the Navy what a problem it could be to keep a big dog supplied with good, nourishing food.

What has the Navy got to do with it? Well, I was an officer in the Shipbuilding Division of the Bureau of Ships, and my job kept me traveling a great deal. Of course I brought my family with me, including Tigue, our German Shepherd. He’s a real dog, tough and with the appetite of a lion. And there was my problem… feeding the critter. Read the rest of this entry »

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HOW TO GROW A BEARD

It takes more than hair on your chin—you need a thick skin. But this man thinks it’s worth it.

By J. Robert Connor

THE male beard, lying fallow for the past 60 years, is emerging once again in all its hairy glory. Despite the prejudice that exists against the jungled jowl there is today a definite trend away from the razor. The man with the fluff beneath his chin is becoming more and more conspicuous on the city streets. Newspaper and magazine ads abound with facial foliage and the tufted chin of the serious conductor and the jazz musician attests to the growing revival of the beaver.
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Cellophane is Born

By A. P. PECK

1. From forest giant to Cellophane is a long stride made possible by chemical research. For the manufacture of Cellophane, the Du Pont Company buys wood pulp—purified cellulose—in square sheets, soaks them in a caustic soda solution (above); the result is “alkali cellulose”.

2. Damp alkali cellulose is shredded into small fluffy particles, aged for two to three days in order that later steps in production may be carried out successfully. Above: Unloading ground-up chemically treated cellulose from shredder.
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How to Get the Things YOU Want

a five-year plan that anybody can use By Emmet Crozier

TAKE a pencil and a sheet of paper and write down your aims in life. Don’t be too specific, but let your imagination ramble a bit. Think of the years ahead. Make a list of the things you want most; then check back to see if you’ve missed anything. The job should take about three minutes—not more than five—and when you’ve finished you will probably lean back and survey the penciled program with hopeful pride.
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How to Put a Ship in a Bottle

Making a full-rigged model that folds so as to enter the neck

By E. ARMITAGE McCANN

“HOW did it get there?” is the question always asked when a ship model in a bottle such as shown in Figs. 2 and 3 is placed on exhibition. You will observe the curious minded examining the bottom of the bottle to see where it was cut to admit the ship, or they will even inquire if the bottle was blown around the ship. But there is no fake about it; everything goes through the neck. With patience and determination, anyone can make this curious and always mystifying type of model.
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Secrets of East Indian Magic Exposed

by Beverley Barnes

Famous tricks of Indian magicians—the well-known rope trick, the mango tree stunt, the basket illusion, the ability of fakirs to withstand pain—are not so superhuman as they seem. Science has pulled aside the veil of mystery surrounding these apparently phenomenal performances, and proved most of them , to be accomplished by natural means.
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MECHANICAL ARTISTS BLOW GLASS BOTTLES

Age-old art of lung-powered glass blowing gives way to puffing, snorting robots of almost human intelligence, capable of turning out 115 bottles a minute.

by Harold L. Zimmer

HAVE you ever picked up a soda or medicine bottle and wondered just how anything so perfect could be turned out in such huge numbers? Perhaps through your mind has flashed the heroic picture of countless, ruddy-cheeked men, industriously blowing away on long tubes, the respective ends of which are covered with round, glowing balls of hot glass.
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Easy Juggling Tricks

by Sam Brown

Tricks of the juggler aren’t always as difficult as they seem to be. With a few simple preparations, as described in this article, you’ll be able to stage a juggling exhibition which will leave your audience gasping at your skill.

ONCE upon a time there was a man. And he did a very clever trick with seven matchboxes. He held one box in his left hand. And on this box he balanced the six others. And people thought he was very clever. But he only laughed . . .

He laughed because the whole trick, like many another juggling trick, was so simple. Try it for yourself: After taking the first box in your left hand, you must secretly push out the drawer about one-half inch; and, since the back of your hand is towards the audience, this passes unnoticed. Read the rest of this entry »

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HOW to be a Successful INVENTOR

by JAY EARLE MILLER
No. 3 of a Series.

In this, the third of a series of articles dealing with the problems of inventors, Mr. Miller points out some of the personalities who have found success through Specialization on certain ideas. One invention rarely makes a successful inventor, the money is made in amplifying the idea or applying it to new uses. You will find much of interest in Mr. Miller’s article. Next month he tells what not to invent.

LAST month and the month before we talked about what to invent, how to invent it, and what to do with it after the device was perfected. But one invention, as a rule, doesn’t make a successful inventor. Read the rest of this entry »