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 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.

THE FINISHED BOX.

Both the lid and the bottom of the box are made in the same manner as described. After the trim-paper has been applied to the sides and edges of the rings, strips of white or colored glazed paper are then pasted around the sides of the rings (over the trim-paper), these strips not being as wide as the strips of trim paper. The finished box shows four edges of the trim, one at the top of the lid, one at the bottom of the lid, one at the top of the box and one at the bottom.

The shoulder ring, or neck, is nearly double the height of the ring which forms either the box or the lid. Paste is applied to one edge of the neck-ring and the neck-ring is then placed inside one of the box-rings, the end containing the paste adhering to the bottom of the box. It is well also to put a small portion of the paste on the side of the shoulder-ring which goes down inside the box. The lid, of course, fits snugly over the neck.