The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-11-02
MAKING ARTIFICIAL EARS.
a Delicate Task ana an Expensive
Product of VuIcanfzed Rubber.

From the New York Tribune.
II there Is any ono branch of sclen-
tihc manufacturing that would seem to
have reached perfection within the last
decade it Is the making of artificial ears.
Such perfect reproductions are turned OUT
nowadays that they cannot be distin-
guished, even upon fairly close inspec-
ton, from the natural ear. Made of a,
specially prepared rubber fiesh-colored i'm
the rough, they are painted by hand i'm
exact imitation of the remaining ear Of
the unfortunate customer and as care
fully touched and marked over as an
ARTIST picture. This is necessary, for am
ARTIFICIAL ear must be perfect to be ac-
ceptable, and such careful work pays the
maker for he gets a hundred dollars
apiece for them.
In a certain workshop the other daxy
where much scientific work is done, there
was shown to a Tribune Representatives
a little box some seven or eight inches
long, less than two inches broad. and
hardly half an inch high.
Iheres 5000 worth of goods in that
DoN' said the foreman, as he lifted off
the cover, displaying five rubber ears w.
ing IN cotton. These are for four differ
ent men and one woman-you see thar
Mite ear there-and all they need now is
Tor the artist to call for them and touch
'em up according to little slips weH give
MIN telling just how the colorlng should
go on. We studied our customers care
tully when we took the orders
"A hundred dollars seems big price
doesn't II, to pay for a little thing like
one OF those ears that's so flexible YOU
can crumple 1t up in your hand easily?
But people that have never made artificial
ears have no idea of the work that ts
on them. There is no guessing about
making them. You have to be as exact
as if you were carving out a statue In
the first place. when a man comes here
to get an ear TO replace one he's lost we
take mould OF the ear that is left. and
If there is any part Of the other we must
get mould OF that, too. so as TO be able
TO ut on the new ear. There are no two
ears the same, and IL takes our most
skilled workmen to get an ear from this
mould or pair of moulds that il Iifelika
and appears TO have the color Of flesh
When finished the new ear is pasted
on the old stump, or simply set precisely
Where the old ear was, and not one man
in a thousand can tell the difference. lie
is really only the first ear that is expen
sive. What costs is to make the mould.
III man has his mould with US we will
give him duplicate ears for about 500
each. There ds one customer on our books
Mailing from Chicago who buys five ears
q year from us, on an average. l don't
know what he does with them all, but he
seems to want them.
''rhe demand take 1t altogether, is linz
tied, and don't suppose we ever turn out
more than twenty new ears a year We
have only been making them up to our
present standard couple Of years, by
the way.
This vulcanized rubber that can be
bent and twisted experience has taught
us is the best material to use. We have
Experimental with nearly everything. Last
summer we tried aluminium, thinking that
1t would be lighter but, do our best, the
ear turned out far heavier; and, besides.
the metal would not lend itself nearly as
well as rubber to the initiating of flesh
tints.
How do people lose their ears2 In two
ways chiehy-dn railroad accidents or by
getting caught in machinery. The for
mer is by far the more common"