The times., 1899-08-07
The Lincoln National Bank
CT Washington. D. @. ccr. 7th and St.
SAFE DEPOSIT VAULTS. 50x Rem! So. So
THE TINPLATE INDUSTRY.
About 10000 Men and Doys En-
pIoyed in the Business.

About 10000 Men and boys En-
pIoyed in the Business.
Pittsburg. Pa. Aug. s-Prior. to 1891
there was one little tinplate factory in the
| United States. he fruit of the unassisted
experiments of an American manufacturer
So small was the output of this little mill
that it was almost universally believed
that no roofing plate at all was made in
this country. The plant employed about
forty men. Today, not quite eight years
after the Mckinley tariff bill went into
effect, there are fifty-two manufacturing
plants, and 30,0 coo men and boys are draw
ing wages from the tinplate industry. \
few years ago not a sheet of tinplate was
produced in the United States; today s.
197, 500 pounds or 1915 boxes of tinpIate
can be produced annually. and for at least
500 days in the year $120.000 in wages is
earned daily.
American tinplate manufacturers were
not simply satisfied with the advantage
secured TO them by the Mckinley tariff
bill over their Welsh competitors It
would have been possible and il was al
most natural for them TO depend upon the
tariff alone but from the very beginning
they set themselves to outdo the Welsh
manufacturers in their own field, so that
at present European producers of tin look
to America for new ideas and latest I'M
pFovements in methods OF work The
American mills had scarcely started up
before they began 10 double the amount
heretofore produced by single hot MILL
the word mill being used here for the ma
chinery and rolls in charge of one crew
as distinguished from the word mill used to
designate the entire manufacturing plant.
Not satisfied with doubling the output of
the mill, they turned their attention to
- 49,
proper, and the ancient system of hand
dipping the black plates gave way to
machinery. Today this machinery is sold
in constantly increasing quantities to the
Welsh manufacturers, who had never even
dreamed of the idea.
The industry could never have been es-
tablished in this country without the aid
of Welsh workmen, and many hundreds
were imported while the business was get
ting on its feet Today, however Welsh
workmen have practically ceased coming,
unless to take their chances at securing
work, and Americans are filling the places
created by tie establishment of new mills
The development of this new Industry is
even more rapid than that of steel. 1t was
hard to induce the trade to purchase
American steel then, and manufacturers
were fain to initiate the Sheffield brands
going so far as to sprinkle salt water on
their product, to produce the scale caused
in those days by the sea voyage from Eng
land to the United States. 1t was different
in tinpate. Although the industry was
established through the Mckinley tariff
law of 1891, the Worlds Fair exhibition at
Chicago demonstrated only two years later
that American tinpiate was fully equal in
all qualities TO the best Welsh plate.
Thirty thousand men. boys and girls are
employed in the tinplate industry. not
counting several thousand superintendents
and office and shipping clerks Each mill
requires 100 hands for every day of three
turns, and the 300 mills need therefore,
80 900 hands The hands are paid as fol-
lows for each turn of eight hours consti-
tuting a days work: Roller, IS; doubler.
50 TO Sc; heater, 81; catcher, $S.45: screw
boy, 81; shearmen, $3.50; helper, some
times employed by roller, S2-25, in which
case the rollers daily wage, it being on
tonnage basis. amounts To less than SS
cold roller 81 to So; cold roll catcher,
81 80; poke-in boy, S1.50 to S1.75; annealer,
50 TO So; pickler SO to So. These wages
are based on the scale which recently went
into effect Then there are also plate
wheelers, boss truckers, tinhouse truckers,
Klondike gatherers, mender serapers,
branners, floor sweepers, tinhouse grease
and scruff men, assorters, reckoners, box
ers, tin weighmen, assorting-room truck