The Wichita daily eagle., 1894-01-02
BOXES FOR EVERYTHING.
The Great Number Of Uses to
Which Cardboard Is Put
Some Interesting Information Regard
Ing the Beginning and Growth
of an Important In
dustry.

In the multiplicity of modern con-
veniences the paper box holds front
place. Half century ago the dry
goods dealer would present an empty
box to the little daughter of his regu-
lar customer as 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 a
box as peacemaker was a popular
joke half dozen years ago; now they
put ice-crean in boxes, and all sorts of
things. Candy used to be- sold in pa
per bags; the smallest purchase has to
be put in a box. The sauey confection-
er might hand a paper bag to woman
who had made a small purchase, but
never to man. The man is probably
more particular about his parcel than
q 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 box. SO that his
friends may mistake it for a pair of
shoes.
It 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 i've thousand girls are
employed in it. 1t is 6 comparatively
clean. healthy business, is regular and
is well paid, the wages averaging be-.
tween seven and ten dollars a week.
There are in this city seventyfve 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 year. AS
the average cost of 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. Plumly, who started in the
business at Philadelphia in 1s46. He
and his partner cut out the boxes, their
only tools being a straight edge, COM
passes, shoe knife and scissors. They
employed five girls to paste, and for
six or seven years had monopoly of
the business. Then Charles W. Jencks
started in the business in Providence,
and introduced rough scoring ma
chine to cut partly through the card
board where it is folded to make the
box. At that time it was a struggle to
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 open
air on the ground, and consequently
was often filed with sand, which made
it interesting for the cutters. The
best quality of mill board was all i'm
ported.
In those early days the young wom-
sn in the paper box factories made
boxes as their mothers made pies, "one
at time and that one we'll" A girl
who could make pies quickly and well
could make boxes in a similar style.
The operations were somewhat SINH
lar. There was the same manner Of
cutting out material, the same caress-
ing way of patting down and smooth
ing out the box coverings as the pie
crust and the same way of trimming
off surplus material Now everything
is done by machinery in paper box
making, and the girls have nothing to
do but feed the material to the ma
chimes.
George A. Dickerman, of Boston,
started in the business il 1865 In Bos-
ton, and about 1870 Frenchman
named Rouyon introduced the business
in this city. The old-fashioned way
of scoring the pasteboard with a rule
and cobbler's knife continued until
1871, when the first machine was info
duced. This was the invention of Mr.
Bigelov, of New Haven. This scoring
machine was such a success that
of firms sprang up. Six years
after a man named Marshall. OF Bos-
ton, made a lighter and easier running
machine, and in 1881 John T. Robinson
& Co. invented the present scoring ma
chine. The trouble with the former
was in the time It took to ad-
just the knives to new size or pattern
Of box; in the Robinson scorer there
are two sets of knives, so that one can
be adjusted while the other is being
used.
Nowadays the whole Of the material
IS made in this country, and 1t is a sat
isfaction TO know that the scoring ma
chimes and the box making machines
are all the result of Yankee ingenuity.
Paper boxes are used all over the
world now, and all the world has TO
get its machines from this country. In
France paper boxes are still made by
hand By many firms. but the machines
have been introduced there and il VIII
bot be long before Yankee Inventions
viii be at work II all their factories
The box maker now receives two dol
ars for the same work ne received five
dollars for twenty-one years ago. yet
le makes q larger profit and is able 70
pay higher wages The machines are
lncomplicated and not expensive The
business gives steady employment, as
there Is practically no particular sea-
,on. and when not working on orders
which large supply has always 20 be
1ept on hard