The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1894-02-02
) FOR EVERYTHING.
Great Number Of Uses to
Which Cardboard Is Put.
ie Interesting Information Regard
ing the Beginning and Growth
of an Important In
dustry.

dustry.
In the multiplicity of modern con-
veniences the paper box holds front
place. Half a century ago the drv
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 a neat box. Not only is this SO in
the dry goods business, but in every
other business. The oyster fry in n
box as a pcacemj.llcr was n popular
joke half "a 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 a box. The saucy confection-
er might hand paper bag 10 a woman
who had made a small purchase, hut
never To n man. The man is probably
more particular about his parcel than
a woman. He hates To be seen carry
ing parcels, anyway, and those he does
carry must be thoroughly well dis
guiscd. II he buys a bottle of whisky
he must have il in a box. so that his
friends may mistake it for a pair of
shoes
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. II is a comparatively
clean, healthy business, il regular and
is well paid, the wages averaging be
tween seven and ten dollars week.
There are in this city Seventy-five firms
engaged i'm the business. but three
fourths of il is done by ten large firms,
whose Individual output win run from
one hundred thousand TO one hundred
and fifty thousand dollars 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 worltmen and girls employed
by the firms of those cities cannot be
much less than twenty thousand.
ne IlTSi paper Don maker was
George W. Plumly. who started in the
business at Philadelphia in 1916 He
and his partner cut ont 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. Jencl<s
started in the business in Providence.
4.
chine to cut partly through the card
board where it is folded to make the
box. At that time it was Il 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-
en- in the paper box factories made
boxes as their mothers made pies, ''onc
at time and that one we'll" a girl
who could make pies quickly and well
could make boxes in Il 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 10y machinery in paper box
making. and the girls have nothing to
do but feed the material to the ma
chimes.
George a. DickerInan. of Boston,
started in the business in 1868 in Bos-
ton, and about 1870 Frcnchman
named Rouyon introduced the business
III this city. The old-fashioned way
of scoring the paStcboard with rule
and a cobblcr's knife continued until
1871, when the first machine was intro
duced. This was the invention of Mr.
Bigclow. OF New Haven. This scoring
machine was such success that a
number of firms Sprang up. Six years
after man named Marshall. of Ros-
ton, made a lighter and easier running
machine, and in 1881 John 4. Robinson
Il Co. invented the present scoring ma
chine. The trouble with the former
machines was in the time it took To adj
just the knives to a 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 it 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 ali 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 it will
not be long before Yankee inventions
will be at work in all their factories.
The box maker now receives two dol
lars for the same work he received five
dollars for twenty-ono years ago, vet
he makes larger profit and is able to
pay higher WAGES. The machines are
uncomplicated and not expensive The
business gives steady employment, as
there is practically no particular sea
son, and when not working on orders
the machines are running on stock. of
which large supply has always to be
kept ON hand.
such is the rapid growth of the paper
box industry. which now has three
good trade papers TO represent its in
tereStS.
Rare TronIr.,I EIoWer.