The Havre herald. [volume] (Havre, Mont.) 1904-1908, 1908-01-31
HOW CIGAR BOXES ARE MADE.

HOW CIGAR BOXES ARE MADE
A Fortune Spent In Producing Them
Every Year.
There Is probably not a cigar smoker
IN the land who has not wondered, al
me time or another, how much of what
1e pays for his smoke goes into the
oox and the Autographed labels and
the gilt bands and the like, says Tit
Bits. A box which holds fifty cigars
costs from 4 to cents, according to
what it is made of, and this 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 100000 ev-s
cry year. Some of them go to Ha-
vana, but they come back with cigars
in them.
Perhaps the most interesting and
least known fact about this, industry is
that, while some cigar boxes are made
Of cedar, great number are made OF
dar, while still others are made of
poplar without any veneer. In the lat
ter case the wood is printed in imi-
tation Of cedar by the use Of ink OF
the proper color and q machine which
carries 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 1882 of an inch. Despite the very
small amount of wood needed, 1t is
cheaper, however. to use the veneered
poplar than the cedar, and still cheap
err 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 s cents. The cor
responding price for veener is about
cent less, while for the printed poplar
the prices are 3 to cents.
Such prices are only made possible
| by the use of intricate machinery and
subdivision Of labor, and it is also inn.
portant to waste as little Of the ma
terial as possible. To this end the
wood Of the proper thickness is not
sawed from the log, but sliced or split
by a 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 saw
ing 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, con-
tanning the same number in each, OF
ends, sides, bottoms and tops.
The ends and sides are nailed to-
gether into a frame by one machine
and the bottoms and tops are nailed
on by another. These machines are
fed with nails by an automatic ar
rangement which presents the required
number Of them at each stroke. One
stroke does the business of mailing at
each corner and one stroke also sui.
fees for the bottoms and tops, the
nails being pushed in rather than drlv.
en-. One Of these machines will frame
5000 boxes a day and two machines
working together will turn out 10000
>oxes except for the labels.
The lid of the cigar box is held II
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 trimmings. When the hinge
is dry the FASTING of the labels is be
gun. Tiny metal hinges are sometime:
out upon cigar boxes, but these are
comparatively rare. So are dOve-tail
ed boxes, which can, however, be hat
On order.
Generally speaking. the entire int
| rior surface Of the box is lined will
paper and paper flaps and in large fac
tories the label printing and sometime
even the designing of the labels consti
tute an important branch Of the work
Such printing is Of an unusually va
ried character, requiring several kind
of presses, including those for -emboss