The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-09-27
CHAMDEREXCURS|ON ID ROBERTS & SON Large Crowd Visits Big Printing Establishment SOUVENIRS ARE GIVEN Officials of Company Show Visitors Through Each Department, Ex-
 blaming All Features of the
 Concerns Work
SOUVENIRS ARE GIVEN

The sixth industrial excursion of the Chamber of Commerce, which was held yesterday afternoon. marked the for
 nal opening and house warming of the new stationery store and plant of Roberts &r Son, concern which was established in a small way In Bir- mlngham in 1872, the year of the in- corporation of the city. Nearly 100 men | took advantage of the chance to visit
 the large plant and headed by Oscar Turner the line was formed in front of the Chamber of Commerce build ing. the excursionists marching In a
 body to the Roberts plant on Third
 avenue
 l Upon entering the plant the men were met by the officers of the com pany and were taken In groups throughout the different floors A mem
 Der of the firm accompanied each group
 and explained every phase of the bus mess. First the spacious damp-proof
 basement was inspected where mod
 ern waste paper ba1ing machine was seen. From the basement the crowd ] was taken to the top floor of the build | ing, occupied by the binding and print ing department stock room. A number | of bindery machines were seen in oper- alton on this floor, the processes of edging, marbling and gold lettering
 being especially interesting.
 | on the floor below over 30 presses were seen in operation. The feature
 that appealed to the crowd here was
 the monotype setting keybanlS and the
 monotype caster. The composing room
 is equipped with all-stee1 cabinets. | The engraving and embossing de- partment was very interesting. The ex- l.cursionists saw three plate presses in operation here printing wedding in- vitations. visiting cards and the like. In the accounting rooms in the rear
 of the second floor was given demon stration how the concern keeps rec- ord of the expense of every item man
 ufactured and bases the charge to the Customer on this cost. Before descend- ing to the first floor each excursionist registered his name in large time register and received a check which
 entitled him to handsome leather
 card case as souvenir Fruit punch
 was also served on the second floor
 and cigars were distributed.
 The ground floor is occupied by the stationery store, said to be tho hand
 somest of It's kind in the south, all
 goods being kept in ball bearing, glass front cases.
 The Roberts & Son plant employs
 over 100 people with an approximate yearly pay roll of sS5,00O. The officers of the company are R. W. Ewing, president: R. w. Massey, vice presi- dent; James G. Smith, secretary and | treasurer; c. r. Thum, superintendent
 of the plant, and R. T. Anderson, city sales manager
 [ After spending over an hour in the plant and visiting every department 1 the excursion ended. It Is probable that the excursion committee of the Cham Der of Commerce will arrange for an-
 other excursion before long. The mem bers of the committee are: Oscar Tur- ner, chairman; J. E. Ramsey. J. A. German, G. c. oliver and J. A. Mill som. assisted by W. B. Everett. as-
 sistant secretary of the Chamber of Commerce.