The Valentine Democrat. [volume] (Valentine, Cherry Co., Neb.) 1896-1898, 1896-12-31
MAKING ARTIFICIAL EARS.
Those Who Need the Luxuries Are
Compelled to Pay Well for Them.

Those Who Need the Luxuries Are
Compelled to Pay Well for Them.
If there is any one branch of scien-
tiic 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 a fairly
close inspection, from the natural ear.
Made of a specially prepared rubber,
f~iesh-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 a certain workshop the other day,
where much scientific work is done,
sentative a 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 slips
Well give him telling just how the col
oring 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 a 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-
fetal ears have no idea OF the work
that is on them. There is 10 guessing
about making them. You have 10 be as
exact as if you were carving out a
statue. In the first place, when 4 man
ONE here to get an ear to replace one
he's lost we take a mold of the a that
is left. and if there is any l,art of the
other we must get a mold Of that, too,
so as to be able to fit on the nLw a
There are no two ears exactly tie same,
and it takes our most skilled workmen
to get an ear from this mold " 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 precise
~ where the old ear was. and not M
man in 1000 can tell the difference. It
is really only the first ear that is eX-
pensive. What costs is to make the
mold. If a man has his mold with us
we will give him duplicate ears for
about 500 each. There is one customer
on our books mailing from Chicago who
buys five ears a year from Is on an
average. l don't know what he does
with them all, but he seems TO want
them.
'.The demand, take it altogether, is
limited, and l don't suppose we ever
turn out mor than twenty new ears a
year.. We have only been making them
up in 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 everything.
Last summer we tried aluminium, think
ing that it 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 chiefly-in railroad accidents
or by getting caught in machinery. The
former is by far the more common
New York Tribune.