The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-03-17
THE PAPER BOX AGE.
NUMBER or USES TO WHICH CARD
BOARD CASES ARE PUT.

1t Provides Employment For Thousands
Evolution of the Paper Box.
In the multiplicity of modern con
yeniences the paper box holds a front
place. Half a century ago the dry
goods dealer would present an empty
| box to the little daughter of his regular
customer as a mark of special favor.
Boxes were then used only by The
! wholesale houses 10 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 4
! neat box. Not only is this so in the
dry goods business, but in every other
business. The oyster fry in a box as a
peacemaker was 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 paper bags
the smallest purchase has 10 be put in
box. The saucy confectioner might
hand paper bag TO woman who had
made small purchase, but never to 4
man. The man is probably more nal-
ticular about his parcel than a woman.
He hates to DO seen carrying parcel.
anyway, and those he does carry must
be thoroughly well disguised. If he
buys bottAof whisky, he must have il
in box, so that his friends may mis-
take it for a pair of shoes.
1t is not surprising, therefore, that
paper box making should have grown
into an important industry. In this
city alone no less than 5000 girls are
employed IN 1t. 1t is comparatively
clean, healthy business. is regular and
is well paid, the wages averaging be
tween 81 and SO a week There are
in this city IS firms engaged in the
business, but three-fourths OF it is done
by 10 large firms, whose individual out
put will run from 500, 900 to $4,000
a year. As the average cost of a paper
box Is D cents, you can form some idea
from this OF the enormous number that
are used. One candy maker alone dur
ing the month of December last used
80, 600 worth OF boxes.
Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago are
also prominent in this industry, and
the worlImen and girls employed by the
firms Of those cities cannot be much less
than 20, 900. There are small firms,
too, in every large city, III addition to
which many large manufacturers make
their own paper boxes.
The first paper box maker was George
W. Plumly, who started in the bust
ness at Philadelphia in 1916. He and
his partner cut out the boxes, their only
tools being straight edge, compasses,
shoe knife and scissors. They employed
five girls to paste and for six or seven
years had monopoly Of the business.
Then Charles W. Jenck5 started in the
business in Providence and introduced
rough scoring machine to cut partly
through the cardboard where it is fold
was a struggle to obtain proper mate
rials. 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 conse-
Quently was often filled with sand,
which made it interesting for the cut
tiers. The best quality of mill board |
was all imported.
In those early days the young women |
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 similar
There was the same manner of cutting |
out material, the same caressing way |
OF patting down and smoothing out the
box coverings DIS the pie crust and tie
same way OF trimming off surplus ma
terial. Now eve~vthing Is done by ma
chinery III paper box making, and the
girls have nothing to do out feed the
to the machines.
George A. Dickerman OF Boston
started in the business in 1868 in Bos-
on, and about 1870 Frenchman named
Rouyon introduced the business in this
,ity. The old fashioned way of scoring
he pasteboard with rule and a cob
1ler's knife continued until 1871, when
he first machine was introduced. This
Vas the invention of Mr.. Bigelow of
New Haven. This scoring machine
vas such success that number of
irms spraDg up. Six years after man
named Marshall OF Boston made
lighter and easier running machine,
md in 1891 John I. Robinson 81 Co.
invented the present scoring machine.
The trOu bic with the former machines
vas in the time it took to adjust the
lnives to = new size or pattern of box.
n the Robinson scorer there are two
cts of knives, so that one set can be
djusted while the other is being used.
Nowadays the whole of the material
S made in this country, and il is a sat
sfaction to know that the scoring ma
hines and the boXmaking machines
ire all the result of Yankee ingenuity.
'aper boxes are used all over the world
ow, and all the world has to get its
machines from this country. In France
aper boxes are still made by hand by
many firms, but the machines have been
Introduced there, and it will not be long |
efore these Yankee inventions will be
t work in all their factories.
The boxmaker now receives 81 for
he same work he got So for 81 years