The Forrest City times. [volume] (Forrest City, Ark.) 1871-1919, 1896-11-13
MAKING ARTIFICIAL EARS.
a Delicate Task and an Expensive Product
of Nulcanized Rubber.

of Nulcanized Rubber.
If there is any one branch of scien-
tific 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 distinguished, even upon fairly
close inspection, from the natural ear.
Made of specially prepared rubber,
hesh-colored in the rough, they are
painted by hand in exact imitation of
the remaining ear of the unfortunate
customer and as carefully touched"
and marked over as an artists picture.
This is necessary, for an artificial ear
must be perfect to be acceptable, and
such careful work pays the maker. for
he gets 500 apiece for them.
In certain workshop, the other day.
where much scientific work is done,
there was shown to a Tribune repre-
sentative little box some seven or
eight inches long, less than two inches
broad, and hardly half an inch high.
There's $500 worth of goods in that
box" said the foreman, as he lifted
off the cover, displaying five rubber
ears lying in cotton. "These are for
four different men and one woman
you see that little ear there-and all
they need now is for the artist to call
for them and touch 'em up according
to little slips Wen give him telling just
how the coloring should go on. We
studied our customers carefully when
we took the orders.
"A hundred dollars seems a big price,
doesn't it, to pay for little thing like
one of those ears that's so flexible you
can crumple it up in your hand easily?
But people that have never made arti-
ficial ears have no idea of the work that
is on them. There is no guessing about
making them. You have to be as exact
us if you were carving out statue.
In the first place, when man comes
here to get an ear to replace one he's
lost we take mold of the ear that il
left. and if there is any part of the other
we must get a mold of that, too, SO az
to be able to fit on the new ear. There
are no two ears the same, and it takes
our most skilled workmen to get an ear
from this mold or pair of molds that
is lifelike and appears to have the color
of flesh.
when finished the new ear Is pasted
on the old stump, or simply set pre-
cisely where the old ear was, and not
one man in a thousand can tell the
difference. 1t is really only the first
ear that is expensive. What costs In
to make the mold. II man has his
mold with us we will give him dupli.
cate ears for about $40 each. There
is one customer on our books hailinR
from Chicago who buys five ears a year
from us, on an average. / don't know
what he does with them all, but he
seems to want them.
THE demand, take it altogether, Is
limited, and | don't suppose we ever
turn out more than 20 new ears wear.
We have only been making them up
to our present standard a 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 every
Thing. Last summer we tried aluni-
mum, thinking that il would be lighter:
but, do our best, the ear turned out far
heavier: and, besides, the metal would
not lend itself nearly as we'll as rubber
to the initiating of flesh tints.
How do people lose their ears? In
two ways, chiefiy-in railroad acci-
dents or by getting caught in ma
chinery The former is by far the more
common."-N. Y. Tribune.