The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-11-18
ABOUT ENVELOPES.
How They Are Made, From start to
Finish.


Finish.
From the New York Press.
The word is spelled in two ways
envelope and envelop. The Envelope
Trust spells 1t with the final e, in
which case it should be pronounced
as If French--ahn-v-lope The French
spelling is, however, envelope. The
word without the final is pronounced
en-vellup. Dean Swift made the fol-
lowing rhyme
Lend these to paper-sparing Pope,
And when he sits to write,
No letter with an envelope
Could give him more delight"
The trade does not say ahn-v-Iope,
but en.vellup. The United States En-
velope Company. with a capital of So
100000, is the largest manufacturer of
envelopes in the world comprising as
1t does no less than nine big concerns
in New England and one in Milwau-
kee- In the United States we have,
all told, thirty large firms engaged in
THIS manufacturer, twenty of which do
not belong to the trust
| Over l0,000,000 envelopes are made in
| this country every working day, or
more than S,0oO,OOO,oOO year. The pin
| product amounts to 10000, 900 day, Or
| nearly 0O00,O0O,00o annually. The
American output of lead pencils is s.
900 cross or 10000 a day, making the
annual production 225000, 900. Buttons
we make by the million gross, and
| great quantities of steel pens. In the
latter product England is far ahead
OF us, 1t is said we do not make the
right kind of steel for pens. The big
! gest little thing is the match, of which
| we make and use annually over LIS,
| 900 600. 1t is estimated that the
| consumption is five matches a day for
| every man. woman and child of the
| population, which makes 100000, 900 a.
Day A single machine turns out CSC, 900
| matches an hour, or 5,2S0000 each
working day of eight hours nsi
The oldest envelope manufacturing
| nrm in the United States is in William
street, which boasts many ancient
houses in other lines. If you wish to
see the old, the solid. the safe and the
sound in our commercial life go sto
William street, between, say, Liberty
and Beekman. The old sign of Raynor
& Perkins may be seen yet, but all the
haynors are dead Samuel Raynor was
| the original envelope manufacturer in
| New York, and the firm in William,
street Is his successor. When he be-
gan business our fathers were folding
thelr letters with the writing inside
and concealing the contents by means.
OF waters and sealing wax. That was
about fifty years ago. For a long time
envelopes were made by hand and the
cost was considerable. The Raynor q,
Perkins establishment of to-day turns
out with eighty machines ,200,0 900 every
eight hours, and the present cost Of
envelopes is so small that we hardly
take 1t into serious consideration
i confess nf
ment since going through this factory
with Mr. johnson. I thought an en-
Velope machine could eat rolls Of pa-
per and turn out millions of the nm
lshed product, packed in boxes ready
Tor the customer. Match machines are
Ted on blocks of wood and the COM
| pleted product is set before you pack
ed in boxes containing from SIS to 800
each. However, the envelope machine
is ingenious enough. The blanks are
first cut with steel dies, which are
forced through from 400 to 700 sheets OF
paper at single impression. They are
then placed In the front of the ma
chine, which picks them up one by one
gums the laps, folds them, dries them
and delivers them in blocks of twenty
five to the operator. The latter is in.
variably woman. All she has to do
is TO keep up the supply of blanks and
band the envelopes as they are turned
out. The smaller the envelope the fast
er the machine. the capacity ranging
| from $4,000 to $4,000 day of eight
hours.
Some Of the envelopes made here are
| veritable works of art. Splendid ex-
amples of lithographing are seen IN
| immense sheets of paper, some with
| gorgeous pictures so intricate that the
man with the die must be a Philadel-
| phia lawyer to unravel the puzzle. The
| nj mi 10 ff n he tr,fO or,lr
at one impression must be of perfect
register else the envelope will be ruin
| ed in the folding. The old plan was
to drive steel pins through the 400 or
more sheets. seeing that in each a mark
made by the photographer was pune
| tured. So varied is the demand for
| envelopes that no factory could Keep
in stock sufficient number of dies
and machines for making odd styles.
therefore the ancient hand work is
carried on in a secluded corner.
A young man in a wire cage has
mallet and some queer shaped steel
| chisels, with which he cuts out these
odd shapes and sizes. all of which are
gummed and folded by hand. 1t is a
slow and tedious yet ID necessary
| branch of the business. Gum arabic.
! dissolved in hot water or steamed is
used for pasting the flaps. Some or
the envelopes are 10 by Is inches. with
q.
| Then there are little fellows, 2 by 31z
| inches, principally made Of manila pa
per and used for church collections
Enormous quantities OF official sizes
are made for the government. The fav-
orite and standard commercial sire for
business correspondence is No. SIX.
Making envelopes is largely a wo-
mans occupation, only the heavier la
Dor falling to men. And the work of
attending to a machine is easy. clean
and pleasant. The wages are fair, the
hours short. The envelope salesman.
whether at home or on the road. car
| ries no sample cases, but a small leath-
er wallet in his coat pocket. It is said
| that Thomas Rule, the dean of sales-
men, does not even carry a wallet
| Twenty-Five years in the business. ne
has built up a trade that relentlessly
| pursues him wherever he goes His
face is big part Of the fortune of
his house. Every time he shows II TO
a customer the company buys a new
machine capacity $1,000 a day.
.s--1~-s---------
The people OF California observed a
queer natural phenomenon recently. II
L