The Romance of the Box 187 



and lids of the boxes. The cutting, although 

 it seems so simple, involves some remarkable 

 dove-tailing of the ends and sides, for these 

 boxes will have to stand a great deal of 

 hard usage before they are delivered to their 

 destination. 



The sides and ends having been dove- 

 tailed, the box passes on for the next opera- 

 tion, which consists of nailing on the 

 bottoms, but this is not done by hand, for 

 the engineer has evolved a clever tool which 

 is well named the automatic nailer. It is 

 in charge of an operator who is enabled to 

 turn out scores of boxes each hour. 



All that he has to do is to pick up the 

 framework of the box as it reaches him, 

 select three bottom boards, place them into 

 position, press a foot treadle, reverse the 

 box, press again, and hey presto! the box 

 is made. The machinery feeds itself from 

 a flow of nails which descend by a series 

 of tubes; they always arrive with the sharp 

 point downwards, then they glide into the 

 slots and so the automatic nailer is con- 

 stantly fed with the necessary supplies. 



