The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1907-07-06

HOW CIGAR BOXES ARE MADE.
A Fortune Spent in Producing Them
Every Year.

| n rOEAuHS spent IA FrOIucEDg Ihem
Every Year.
There Is probably not cigar smoker
in the land who has not wondered, at
one time or another, how much of what
he 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 four
to eight cents, according to what it is
made Of, and this is without counting
the labels and bands, or anything but
the wood and nails. The cost of these
! boxes used in the United States alone
foots up to $6,OO0,0Oo every year Some
of them 60 to Havana, but they come
back with cigars in them, says Tit
Bits.
Perhaps the most interesting and
least known fact about this industry is
that while some cigar boxes are made
Of cedar, a great number are made of
popular, veneered on one side with ce-
dar while still Others are made Of pop
ular without any veneer. In the latter
case the wood is printed in imitation
Of cedar by the use of ink of the prop
er 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 cigar box Of
standard grade are 5-32 inch in thick
ness while the ends are 1882 inch. De-
spite 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 one hundred cigars
now cost about 10 cents, and the half
boxes, or those for fifty cigars, about
eight cents. The corresponding prices
flor veneer are about one cetn less, while
for the printed poplar the prices are
three to four cents.
Such prices are only made possible
by the use Of intricate machinery and
subdivision of labor, and 1t is also inn
Iportant to waste aus little of the ma
tertal as possible. To this end the wood
of the proper thickness is not sawed
lfrom the log, but sliced or split by a
special machine The immense pressure
used in veneering wood for the manu-
facture of furniture is not used, and
1.-The veneered slabs, which are pretty
wen warped and twisted at first. are
Strengthened out and dried simply by
passing through rollers.
Then the slabs are taken to the saw
llng 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 xamining
ach and sorting out those which are
Imperfect, makes separate piles, con-
tairing the same number in each, OF
1 ends, sides, bottoms and tops.
The ends and sides are nailed togeth.
err into frame. by one machine and the
bottoms and tops are nailed on by an.
other These machines are fed with
mails by an automatic arrangement
which presents the required number Of
them at each stroke. One stroke does
the business of mailing at each corner
and one stroke also sufIlces for the bot
toms and tops, the nails being pushed
In rather than driven. One of these
machines will frame five thousand box
es a day, and two machines, working
together will turn out ten Thousand
boxes, except for the labels.
The lid of the cigar box Is held in
place by mailing only along the from
edge, and generally by one nail. The