Making Tin Can Toys

Making Tin Can Toys is a book by Edward Thatcher, who is described as originator of tin can toys and instructor of metal working at Teachers College, Columbia University. The introduction says tin can toys were invented after a fruitless search of the toy shops for a large tin locomotive. The introduction says a cocoa tin came in very handy for a cab and a thumb-tack box served for a headlight.

A quoted account says some old French hospital beds found on the salvage heap were quickly converted into work benches. The quoted account says the soldiers took great interest in the making of mechanical toys, especially war-like ones, such as tanks, aeroplanes, cannon and army trucks. The shop directions tell the worker to take a pair of strong flat-nosed pliers and grasp the tin firmly to the right of the cut. The directions say a fresh lye bath should be made up occasionally as it loses its cleansing power in proportion to the work boiled up in it.