Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-05-10
ORIGIN OF IMPORTANT INDUS
TRY.
Many Years Ago Grocers Began
Paper Box Making in England.


When the grocer or the dry goods
store clerk on the baker sends his goods
to the purehases they are wrapped up
in a paper or card box. This card box
as soon as the contents are taken out is
in nine cases out of ten thrown away
or consigned To Il shelf for future use
The box or bag is of no further inter-
est except possibly to light fire The
grocer or the dry goods store clerk is
moi much Interested in the box All
that he knows or cares to know is that
the box is more OF less Indispensable
to his business and that the firm has a
certain price TO pay for II. Yet the
history OF thc paper box or bag is the
history of one of the big INDUSTRIES of
the country Its mode Of manufacture
is interesting The money spent on pa
tents and special machinery IN one year
would easily run presidential can't
paign.
Years ago the grocers of England
used to wrap goods purchased of them
in paper One day one of the grocers
decided that the paper was clumsy al
though they had reduced the wrapping
of it around parcel TO fine art, and
sought for means whereby he could
make his package of tea or sugar at
/. tractiye to the customer, He folded the
paper in various ways so as to form q
receptacle for the goods.
First ne cut the paper in rectangular
form. overlapping till the ends met
and pasted together Two of them. This
bag was found to be useful for all
small articles. but as soon as anything
heavy was placed in it the bag burst
Then the grocer doubled the bottom of
the bag, hnding that most of the
weight WAS there. This, however
made the bottom too strong and the
sides too weak BY this time other gro
GERS and small vendors had got hold OF
the idea. and several brains were
brought into contact with the bag
question. Various methods of folding
paper bags came into existence, and
the enormous demand for them through
out the country caused the paper mills
to look into the question. The era OF
paper bag and box manufacturing then
started
Every mill that handled or tnanufac-
tured the coarse heavy papers turned
its attention TO bag making. Patents
were taken out thick and fast NILS
began to- give up manufacturing paper
alone and took up bag making as their
main product With the rapid growth
of the United States and the native IN
ventiYe genius of the people machinery
was requisitioned into the art of paper
bag and box making
Nowadays there are hundreds of fac-
tories from coast to coast whose sole
product is either paper bags or boxes,
and each factory specializes ON a GER
tain make or kind of bag. TO do TINS
nearly every manufacturer has some
kind of a protective patent in the man
ufactaring end of it, as the patent Of
flee at Washington has decided that y
is not possible to patent a shape. These
number hundreds and cover every forh
of bag and box. Some have special
way Of folding the bags whereby they
open quite fiat and make it easier Tor
the grocer to place his wares therein
Others have bags of a special paper
through which grease will not pene-
trate, others nontearable bags and SO
on through ganlut of bags OF an
shapes. sIzes and colors
While there are several ciassihca-
tions of bags, the card boxes may be d.
vided into two distinct classes, the SOL
ia or set-up class or the colIapsible or
caught-up The former are put IN
squaring machines and cut and folded
to shape Generally some patent meth
Cd of fastening is used. These boxes
are made for various purposes, usually
for holding light articles, such as cere-
ais, oatmeal and allied goods. These