Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-10-12
HOW CIGAR BOXES ARE MADE
A Fortune Spent In Producing Them
Every Year.
From London Tit-Bits.

FROM LONDON
There Is probably not cigar smoker in
the land who has not wondered, at one
time or another. how much of what ne
pays for his smoke goes into the box, and
the Autographed labels. and the gilt bands
and the like. A box which holds fifty
| cigars costs from to cents, according
to what it Is made Of. and this IS without
counting the labels and bands, or any
thing but the wood and nails. The cost
of these boxes used in the United States
alone foots up to S6,OOO,OO0 every year.
Some of them go to Havana, but they
come back with cigars in them.
Perhaps the most intere sting and least
known fact about this industry is that,
while some cigar boxes are made of cedar,
a great number are made of poplar,
veneered on one side with cedar, while
still others are made of poplar without
any veneer. In the latter case the wood
| is printed in imitation Of cedar by the use
! OF ink of the proper color and a machine
which carries a printing roller on which
are the lines to resemble the granting of
| cedar wood. The bottom and top of a
| cigar box of standard grade are 5-32 of an
| inch In thickness. while the ends are 1872
of an inch. Despite the very small amount
of wood needed. it is cheaper, however, to
use the veneered poplar than the cedar,
and still cheaper to print the poplar.
Solid cedar boxes to hold 100 cigars now
| cost about 10 cents, and the half boxes,
or those for fifty cigars, about 8 cents.
| The corresponding price for veneer are
| about 1 cent less. while for the printed
poplar the prices are to cents.
Such prices are only made possible by
| the use Of intricate machinery and sub
division of labor. and 1t Is also important
| to waste as little of the material as pos
sibe To this end the wood of the
| Ia upd
rlog, but sliced or split by special
machine. The immense pressure used in
veneering wood for the manufacture of
furniture is not used. and the veneered
sides. which are pretty well warped and
twisted at first. are Strengthened out and
dried simply by passing through rollers.
Then the slabs are taken to the saving
table, where they are ripped and cross
sawed-from five to ten in one cut-into
pieces Of proper dimensions for the single
boxes which are being made. Thence
the pieces are sent to the inspector, who,
besides examining each and sorting out
those which are imperfect, make separate
piles, containing the same number In
| each, of ends. sides, bottoms and tops.
The ends and sides are nailed together
into a frame by one machine, and the bot
toms and tops are nailed on by another.
These machines are fed with nails by an
automatic arrangement, which presents
| the required number OF them at each
l
mailing at each corner, and one stroke
also suffices for the bottoms and tops, the
nails being pushed in rather than drive n.
One of these machines will frame 5000
boxes a day and two machines. working
together, will turn out 10000 boxes, except
| for the labels
The lid of the cigar box is held in place
by mailing only along the front edge. and
generally by one nail. The hinge at the
back is made by one strip of cheesecloth
glued upon the outside and subsequently
covered by the labels and paper trim
mings When the hinge is dry the pasting
of the labels Is begun Tiny metal hinges
are some times put upon cigar boxes, but
these are comparatively rare. So are dove
tailed boxes. which can, however, be had
on order.
Generally speaking, the entire interior
surface of the box is lined with paper and
paper flaps. and in large factories the
label printing. and sometimes even the
designing Of the labels, constitute an i'm
portant branch of the work. Such printing
is of an unusually varied character, re-
curing several kinds of presses, includ-
iny thosa for embOSSfng.