The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-07-07


 toys is becoming almost as great as that in the winter season preceding the Christmas holidays, and manufacturers prepare their stock in tin pals, shoyels' boats and whips, as the mercury gradu- ally climbs upward. To child bound for the country or seashore there Is some thing as potent in the possession of a tin pail and shovel as there Is in a sunshade or pair of binoculars for his parents. What is a day on the sandy beach with out either?
 Over on the east side of New York l there Is a toy factory where scores or hundreds of these cheap summer play things are produced by a queer half- European population of workmen who learned their art in far-off Germany, Pol and and Hungary. Historically the toy industry first started and developed In Nuremberg and then spread to other parts of Europe and finally reached this country. In the old country the toys were all handmade and hand-painted, and the workers were paid miserable wages.
 But in this land of genius and invention the hand has as little to do with the toy making as possible. However, there Is a certain part of the work that must be produced by skilled hands, and many of the Old World toy makers labor in the east side factory as they did formerly in their native homes. Industrially consid- cred, the factory is a queer and pictur- esaue place. It combines the progressive with the antiquated methods of work. Alongside of modern machinery for cut ting or punching tin a workman will be found engaged in the simplest form of hand labor. Some of the machinery is ingenious In the last degree and practi- cally of local invention and make.
 Wholesale Methods.
 This factory supplies a good deal of the local trade with Its seashore and moun- l tain toys. In one part of the factory l great stacks of sheet tin are piled high New stacks come in at one entrance every few days, and they go out of the | other Tn the shape of completed toys. One of the most common summer toys is the tin pail, with it's accompanying shovel. These pals are stacked high at this season of the year, ready for ship ment to any beach within a hundred miles of the city. They are rich and saudy in their colors refecting all the hues and combinations of the rainbow But they are all painted by machinery. l TO paint that number of pails In single season would require double the regular | factory force.
 The sheets of tin are cut by one set of 1 workmen into desirable strips by ma chine which is operated by foot treadle. This cutting machine is a simple, and sometimes q clumsily arranged home made affair, but 1t Is very effective When cut in strips the tin is embossed in different designs by machinery. A certain number of new designs are made i each year, but as a rule the children are not exacting In their artistic demands, and they forget what fashion prevailed i last season. When embossed the strips of tin are passed through rollers of a 1 painting machine.
 The painting is thus a matter of simple and inexpensive work and the sheets are so quickly prepared for the next pro- 1 cess that a single operator can keep a score or more of workmen supplied. The sheets are variously painted for different toys. One morning the painter will fix l his rollers for tin pails of certain pat tern, and he will turn out several thou sand of these. The afternoon will be spent In cleaning the rollers or adjust ing new ones to the machine. Then pro- l bably 5000 sheets of tin suitable for tin houses or kitchens will be painted Fol- lowing this will come an equal order for sand-driven tin windmills or tin boats, shovels or houses.
 Embossln9 and Painting.
 The cups, saucers, plates, stoves and tin mechanical toys are painted in the same way The use to which tin can be put in toymaking grows every season, and 1t Is becoming generally recognized as the most desirable metal for summer seaside toys. The children can play in the sand with these toys without break ing them, while wooden toys would prove useless. Even the boats. fishes and ami mals are made in great variety to float on the water.
 When embossed and painted by ma chinery the sheets of tin next go to stampers. Stamping or pressing is a simple operation and a single workman can turn out an amount of work that would represent the combined effects of hundred men working with ordinary hand plyers. Not a single but a score of strips are put in the stamper at once, and a single downward movement of the machine presses the edge or center af l desired.
 The die of the stamper is carried in a plunger which works up and down by means of a horizontally mounted shaft. Cups. saucers and other implements arc given their exact shape at a single move ment of the machine New dies can be quickly adjusted, but as a rule the oper- ator works all the, morning in stamping a single pattern. He may work on cups and saucers until his bench becomes a literal shop of tin toys. As they are all painted beforehand, the stamper com pletes them and they are ready for ship ment in many instances. Girls pick then up and sort out defective ones and pacl the perfect ones for market.
 The most expensive toys pass through other processes. The jagged edges oi these must be crimped or turned down Formerly, no attempt was made to dc this, but complaints were received from the seashore that accidents happened tc children using the cheap tin toys. They were cut with them so often that fol the sake of the future of the trade ar effort was made to remedy the evil St today most of the cheap tin toys hay, their edges turned to make them smootl and harmless. A machine is made to d, this work for all that present straigh < EsseA and also for those of rough shape