Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1883-12-06
SIGN-BOARDS.
Mysteries of Their Misunderstanding
Materials Used.


From the Chicago Tribunel
The man who visits New York for
the first time, it has been stated, if
asked to describe which salient feature
of the metropolis impressed him the
most will reply, the signs. Tricky
covering the buildings on Broadway
and on every street devoted to trade,
these many-colored advertisements in
forms and rarities which tire the mind
to enumerate are beyond question one
OF the greatest sights of the great city.
Evidence may be gained by n walk
through the principal thoroughfares of
Chicago that this city has caught some
of this particular contagion which RACES
among New York business firms. The
character and quality of signs has
greatly improved within few years.
This is apparent at cursory glance.
Interrogated ON the subject a large
manufacturer of signs stated:
"The business in this city has adj
yanced considerably within recent
period. Formerly merchants were con-
tent with plain board upon which
was painted their names, and displayed
the crude affair in O way that often de-
tracted from its value. The tremen-
dous competition in mercantile life and
the lavish use of advertising has given
sign-making great impetus. From
small industry it has been elevated into
an extensive business, divided into many
departments, employing in its uses a
long list of materials, keeping alive and
in fourishing condition hundreds of
shops, and giving employment to hun
dreds of workingmen, designers and
artisans, skilled and unskilled."
Mention few of the materials used
IN the manufacture of signs.
Iron, zinc, copper, brass, silver and
sometimes gold, the less precious Jew
els. and mineral dust, glass, paper,
chemicals, etc. The list is too long to
go over without memorandum. Signs
are made OF homogeneous and of hete-
rogeneous materials. They are nodded,
or cut, or carved, or hammered to-
gether. There is hardly branch of
applied physics which is not in a gen
eral way called on for contributions in
their manufacture. Chemistry also is
searched for new combinations of col
ors which shall include a greater dura-
bility and vividness.'
The different departments in the
manufacture, what are they ?"
Signs are divided into distinct yari-
cites. There are the metal signs. the
glass signs, the image signs, and the
wooden signs. All these shade into
grades, each of which is separate from
the rest. Metal signs are usually
shield-shape. The material-copper
zinc, or sheet-iron--is cut according to
the pattern, and silver or gold-plated,
as the case may be. The edges are then
treated and the letters are cut into it
by graver and enameled. The whole
is then polished and when fitted with
wooden braces is ready to be set up. 1t
passes through the hands of several
special workmen in the process. Hlu-
minated signs made of glass are among
the best of advertising mediums. They
are made under patents by number of
establishments III the East From q
beginning of simple painted glass the
shields, and banners, and
spheres, and various other shapes you
see adorning restaurant and theater
fronts at night have become very COM
pick and beautiful affairs. Stained
glass and German jewels are used in
their makeup. Some of them-the
best specimens-riva mosaics, except
that, unlike those curios, they are
AS in tlleir infancy certain trades are
still DIES grated by their peculiar signs.
The shoemaker displays boot, the
apotnecary mortar and pestel, the
butcher a joint, and so on. The
fat is one of the minor illus
trations of the curious truth that
human nature, despite the influ-
ences of high civilization, is homely,
and, like homely things, changes little.
These signs formerly were made of
wood. Zinc and copper have replaced
that material. The working of these
minerals in this form is another depart
mtnt of signmaking. 1t requires de-
signers, men of artistic sense and train
ing, and artisans who execute, the same
as the assistants who copy in marble
the creation which the sculptor has
built in clay. Metal images, often
works of decidedly artistic merit, are
manuf ;ctured chiefly in Troy and few
other places in the Eastern States"