500 PAPIER-MlCHE 



cheaply, of match-boxes and other cheap receptacles for tacks, screws, and various 

 small articles ; and the substitution of wire-fastenings for the paste, besides greatly 

 increasing the duty of the machine, is quite a desideratum on other accounts. It is 

 said by those familiar with the details of such trades, that the delay in drying the 

 boxes when pasted, which often occurs in damp weather, frequently interferes with 

 the shipment of large invoices of goods ; in some cases of protracted damp weather, 

 the paper-boxes really mildew before they dry, and might ruin or seriously damage 

 the goods picked in them. It was to obviate these obvious, but to others insuperable, 

 difficulties, that the inventor has produced the wire-fastening machine we have alluded 

 to. The work accomplished by it is not only neater and stronger than that done by 

 hand, but the rate of production of one machine is that of seventy-five workmen. The 

 method of fastening Yhe edges of the paper with wire staples is as follows : The wire 

 is wound on a spool, from which the proper lengths are drawn by the machine for 

 each box ; the staples are formed and brought each to its place, at right angles with 

 the box material, and are made at the proper moment to puncture it, upon which they 

 are, an instant later, firmly clinched on the opposite surface, The power of impact 

 exerted at right angles' with an opposing surface is here beautifully illustrated ; and 

 be it remembered, that the entire production of the box is to be ascribed to the 

 machine, every portion of the work being automatic. The machine sizes the slips of 

 wrapper singly, and shapes them, and throws oxit a match-box complete even to 

 being touched with glue and sprinkled with sand at the rate of 30,000 pieces per 

 day of ten hours. 



The third machine is simply a modified form of the one just described, in which 

 its metallic fastenings and general movements are applied to the production of 

 rectangular boxes of superior quality and of various sizes, applicable for safe packages 

 and display of articles of luxury, &c. The completion of these machines is a realisation 

 of the labour of seven years, and they are now busily plying their functions with 

 perfect success. 



The invention of the paper-box machine, by which the supply of articles indispen- 

 sable to many of the small-ware producers is vastly increased and cheapened, cannot 

 fail speedily to result in the complete substitution of machine-labour for the hand- 

 labour formerly universally employed for the purpose; while, from its perfect 

 adaptation to the uses for which it is designed, and the mechanical ingenuity dis- 

 played in its conception and design, it is worthy of all praise. 



PAPIER-MACHE. The fine old philosopher Boyle says : 



' Though paper be one of the commonest bodies that we use, there are very few 

 that imagine it is fit to be employed other ways, in writing and printing, or wrapping 

 up of other things, or about some such obvious piece of service ; without dreaming 

 that frames of pictures, and divers fine pieces of embossed work, with other curious 

 inoveables, may, as trial has informed us, be made of it.' 



The origin of the manufacture of articles for use or ornament from paper, is not 

 very clearly made out ; we are naturally led to believe, from the name, that the French 

 must have introduced it. We find, however, a French writer ascribes the merit of 

 producing paper ornaments, to the English. After describing some peculiar orna- 

 mental work, the writer proceeds : 



As this work had to be done on the spot, and with much rapidity of execution, in 

 order to prevent the stucco from setting before it had acquired the intended form, 

 the art was somewhat difficult ; the workman had to design almost as he worked ; 

 therefore, to do it well, it was necessary that he should have some of the requirements 

 and qualities of an artist. This circumstance, of course, tended very much to limit 

 the number of workmen, and their pay became proportionally large. The artisans 

 assumed more than belonged to their humble rank in life, and ultimately the workers 

 in stucco combined together to extort from their employers a most inordinate rate of 

 wages. It would be superfluous here to detail all that followed ; it is sufficient to state 

 that the total ruin of their art was the final result of these delusive efforts to promote 

 their individual interests. 



Contrivances were resorted to by the masters which soon supplanted the old mode 

 of working in stucco. The art of moulding and casting in plaster, as previously 

 practised in France, was generally introduced, and the art of preparing the pulp of 

 paper became improved and extended, so as ultimately to render practicable the 

 adoption of papier-machi in the formation of architectural decorations. Thus, at last, 

 was extinguished the original mode of producing stucco ornaments, and there pro- 

 bably has not been for many years a single individual in England accustomed to that 

 business. 



From the ' Gentleman's Magazine,' we learn that many of the fine old ceilings in 

 deep relief of the Elizabethan era are of papier-mache. The handsome ceilings in 

 Chesterfield House are of this material. 



