The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1912-05-09
JOHN BUSKy'S MADE
THAT SANDAL SHAPER
In Verse He Celebrates the End
Of 81 Years Toll at 81
Beaver Street.
Thus John 8. Busky:

Ahus cOuu .. DuShs
Blessed child's inspiration
Brings invention to perfeC ton.
AZ last a last
For the sightlcss a task
Gaining for them livelihood
Through feeling It's understood.
Turn the key. the trick Is solved.
Lasting on a last Is then evolved.
No charity, no sympathy. only sentiment
Work for the aellcted brings contentmcns.
John s. Busky has shop at 81 Beaver
street where he makes shoes and writes
rhymes, and for the last thirty seven
years has been working at a device by
which a blind man can pattern sandals
for the trade. He has offered the use
Of the invention 10 the New York Asso-
citation for the Blind. and the word has
come back that the association is I'm
terested." Busky says he il willing 10
go up to the Lighthouse and teach the
blind men how to use the machine himself
Busky's mind got to running toward
q machine which would let sightless
man work at the shoemaker trade years
ago when a close relative of his went
blind. He started working at the idea
back in 1875. and in odd moments when
he wasn't busy making shoes for lawyers
and bankers he worked at the Machine
1t took him thirteen years to become
discouraged and then year later he said
| to himself that he had failed. But he
| in 1893 he got what heSalls an inspiration,
and in 1908 he was. as he says. reinspired.
; He lays that TO the birth of a little boy. all
Of which he put into rhyme. And now he
has his device patented.
! The whole point of the invention il
that you don't have to- Use tacks in fasten-
ing the upper of a shoe to the insole in
order to hold them together before the
sewing begins. Shcemakers who work
by hand have to nail the two solidly in
place before they begin to stitch. and
mailing is something tnat a blind man
| does not like to do.
When Supt Kellinger OF the workshop
at the Lighthouse was talking to Busky
a little while ago he told him that the
blind broom makers in the association 8
shop have a hard time when II comes
to mailing in the single tack which holds
long ago one OF the blind workers ham
mered his finger by mistake. He threw
down his hammer and went away for
days. nobody knows where.
well. that's just what we avoid in this
machine said Busky Yesterday. The
nails come up from inside by turning
a crank. and there you are. You can do
in fifteen minutes-a blind man or any
body else-what takes an expert shoe
maker half an hour or an hour to do"
And 40 this other rhyme, which he calls
Exploded:
| Patented shoemaking tools for the blind
To make hand scwed boots and shoes OF any kind
Boys and girls OF tender age
Can easily earn an adults wage.
Al praise to the mechanical engineer
Who enabled us to work. wait and perscvere
My HE work and dream Is at last terminated;
rest happy ana content with what have
created.
The blind men at the Lighthouse, in
case the officers there decided to accept
Busky's offer. won't make real shoes
They will make hand sewed sandals
which people who used to go barefoo,
wear nowadays when they can't quite
bring themselves to wear shoes Bisky
says blind men can make them easily
and he will teach them how.