SPARROW SOCKS

The wonderful Scottish sock machine put into picture form by Peter Lippman vies with anything Rube Goldberg ever invented on paper. The story is all about the undoubted power of word of mouth advertising. Angus McFee, the young night watchman of the small factory where the sock machine was housed, kindly set the machine for the tiniest of socks for the sparrows to wear. The birds wore them well and this brought them to the attention of cautious Scottish consumers who had been going elsewhere for their footgear. The intricate illustrations offer more fun than the fairly simple story of a small business going broke.