How Paper Boxes Are Made / A practical and instructive book telling how the beginner may manufacture all kinds of paper boxes, with special chapters on the printing department for paper box plants, embossing, gold-leafing, label work, etc.

by Robert F. Salade

ROUND PILL AND POWDER BOXES.

Through the courtesy of one manufacturer of druggists’ pill and powder boxes, the writer was permitted to see how this line of work is produced, so far as the plant in question is concerned, and the writer will attempt to explain the practical side of this work in the following paragraphs. The reader will be particularly interested in this subject, no doubt, when it is mentioned that some of the facts presented have never before appeared in print, to the writer’s knowledge. This is a bold statement, but we believe that it is well supported.

Round and oval paper boxes, especially the smaller sizes such as are used for face powders, pills, capsules, etc., are made by highly-skilled labor and this class of work is considered to be the most difficult in the paper box industry. Round work is far more intricate than square-box work of any kind. It requires years of practical experience for one to become a first class round or oval box maker. Round work is an art, and many of the fine pill and face powder boxes which are seen in drug stores are beautiful works of art. The greater portion of round and oval work is done by hand, although as stated, some round pill boxes are made on machines.

Round pill and powder boxes are made in a considerable number of sizes and in a great variety of colors and trims. Round pill boxes are made as small as three-fourths of an inch in diameter and with a depth as low as eight-sixteenths of an inch. Then there is a full range of sizes all the way up to three and five-sixteenths inches in diameter, and even larger.

Plain, round, shouldered pill boxes are made from two round pieces of box-board, two “rings” of equal size, made from paper, and one larger “ring” which forms the shoulder or neck.

Round Shouldered Pill Box—Covered with colored glazed
paper, leaving four white edges.

Note that a round box of this type does not have projecting edges at the top of the lid and at the bottom of the box. The round top and bottom pieces set within the rings. The ring is first placed over a form; glue is applied to the edge of the round piece of box-board, and this is then set inside the ring. A strip of thin trim paper—gold, white or colored—is then pasted around the side of the ring, the strip of trim paper being wide enough to extend slightly over the top of the lid, or over the bottom of the box. This extension of the trim paper helps in holding the round piece of box-board to the edge of the ring and produces a smoothly-covered edge.