The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1893-12-23
30 ES !. r. )R & 3 r 7 'THING.

IBO XES TOR b Err YTH!;ING.
Tho Great Mum ez1 .of Uses %
Which Gard aboard e Put
Some IntersstlnE Inforu,atiOn Regard
mr. tho Beglnninx and Growth
Of an lmportant In
| dustry. Ssh.
| In the multiplicity Of modern con-
Iveniences the paper box holds front
lplace. Half century ago the dry
goods dealer would present an empty
box to the little daughter of his regu-
lar customer rs . mark of special favor.
BOXES were then used only by the
WHOLESALE houses to send out their
goods in, and the retailer kept them to
show his wares in. Now the customer
insists upon his purchase being placed
in neat box. Not only is this so in
the dry goods business, but in every
other business. The oyster fry in 3
box as peacemaker was . popular
joke half dozen years ago; now they
put ice-cream in boxes, and all sorts of
things. Candy used to be sold in pa
per bags; the smallest purchase has to
be put in box. The sansy confection-
er might hand a paper bag to woman
who had made small purchase, but
! never to a man. The man is probably
more particular about his parcel than
woman. He hates to be seen carry
ing parcels, anyway, and those he does
carry must be thoroughly well dis
guised. If he buys bottle of whisky
he must have it in a box, so that his
friends may mistake it for a pair OF
shoes.
i 1t is not surprising, therefore, says
the New York Advertiser, that paper
box making should have grown into an
| important industry. In this city alone
no less than five thousand girls are
employed in it. 1t is a comparatively
clean. healthy business, is regular and
is well paid, the. wages averaging be-
tween seyen and ten dollars a week.
There are IN this city seventy-fve firms
engaged in the business, but three
fourths of it is done by ten large firms,
| whose individual output will run from
one hundred thousand to one hundred
and fifty thousand dollars a year. AS
the average cost of a paper box is five
cents, you can form some idea from
this of the enormous number that are
used. One candy maker alone during
the month of December last used ten
Thousand dollars worth OF boxes.
| Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago
are also prominent in this industry
and the workmen and girls employed
by the firms of those cities cannot be
much less than twenty thousand.
The first paper box maker was
George w. Plulnly, who started in the
business at Philadelphia in 1s46. He
| and his partner cat out the boxes, their
only tools being straight edge, com
passes, shoe knife and scissors. They
employed five girls to paste, and fo1
six or seven years had a monopoly Of
the business. Then Charles w. Jencks
| started in the busine n Providence
! and introduced rough scoring ma
chine to cut partly through the card
hoard where it is folded to make the
box At that time it was a struggle tc
obtain proper materials. There were
few paper mills in the country and the
straw board used was very poor stuff
not two sheets coming out of the mill
OF the same size. 1t was made by
hand of straw. meadow hay, refuse
straw from stables, dried in the oper
4 ~ nd MI IL
was often filled with sand, which made
1 it interesting for the cutters. The
best quality of mill board was all i'm
ported.
z-@ In those early days the young WON
en- in the paper box factories made
boxes as their mothers made pies, ''one
at time and that one we'll" "A CIR
who could make pies quickly and wei
could make boxes in similar style
The operations were somewhat SINH
lar. There was the same manner o.
cutting out material, the same caress
ing way of patting down and smooth
ing out the. box coverings as the pit
crust and the same way of trimming
of surplus material Now everything
is done by machinery in paper DO,
making. and the girls have nothing t.
do but feed the material to the ma
chimes. &
| George A. Dickerman, Of Boston
started insti,e business in 1858 in Bos
ton, and about 1870 Frenchmar
named Rouyon in Introduced the business
| in this city. The old-fashioned way
/ Of scoring the paste board with rule
and .cobbler.s knife continued unit
1871, when the first machine was intro
duced. This was the invention of Mr.
Bigelow. Of New Haven. This scoring
machine was such a success that :
! mum her OF firms sprang up. Six year:
after q man named Marshall, of Bos
ton. made . lighter and easier running
| machine. and in 1881 John 7. Robinson
& Co. invented the present scoring ma
chine. The trouble with the former
Iimachines was in the time IL took to ad
Just the knives to new size or patter1
i Of box; in the Robinson scorer ther,
| Are two sets Of knives. SO that one cal