10 NORTH SHORE BREEZE and Reminder 
Aug. 11, 1916. 
Winchendon—the Nuremburg of America 
Toys and Toymakers 
Abound at ‘‘ Toy Town’”’ 
KATHERINE GAUSS 
5 
HE hackneyed phrase, “on account of the war,” as an 
excuse for almost every change in the business and 
mercantile world again comes to the fore in the discussion 
of toys, for it is primarily because of the let-up in foreign 
toy shipments that has given the American toymakers a 
chance to show what good material they not only can, 
but will, turn out for the youth of this country. 
Despite the fact that last Christmas found “Made in 
Germany” toys in the markets, yet it was also very evi- 
dent that the finished product of the American trade had 
received a decided advance in the favor of the toy shop- 
per. This was due to the favorable contrast between the 
oftentimes grotesque and slipshod toys to which we have 
been accustomed, and the true and substantial articles 
‘Made in America.” 
Although there are large toy factories scattered all 
over the United States, the centre of toydom is at Win- 
chendon, Massachusetts, which is often called the “Nurem- 
burg of America,” meaning Toy Town. The Converse 
factory in this town is the largest of the toy factories 
and covers over six acres of land and employs more 
than 300 operatives. 
‘Morton E. Converse and Son” was the pioneer in 
toy manufacturing in this country. The enterprise was 
started in 1878 in Waterville, with twelve employes and 
the smallest possible space, under the firm name of Mason 
& Converse. Morton E. Converse superintended and 
manufactured from his own designs and patents. The 
business was a success from the very start and when the 
site of the factory was moved to its present location Mr. 
Converse bought out his partner’s share, purchased the 
Monadnock mill and took his son into the business as an 
active manager. 
For the young folk it would be disillusionment, for 
toy making in their eyes is an occupation carried on in a 
most marvelous way by Santa Claus, as is evidenced by 
the abundance of drums, engines and other toys, with 
which they are showered each Christmas. But for the 
older folk, who are wiser, if sadder, the trip through a 
toy factory is in itself a fairyland, for many and intricate 
are the processes of making the various toys. 
The first place to be visited in this great Converse 
factory is the room which receives the rough boards 
straight from the mill. These are sorted, trimmed, 
smoothed and cut into variety of lengths, according to the 
department to which they are assigned. Many of the 
cuttings are shipped into a room filled with vats, which 
have a color and varnish mixture, which stains the boards 
a dark, glossy brown, while others are sent at once to this 
and that department all over the plant. 
One of the most important products of this factory 
is the drum, and it is said that over sixty different styles 
are manufactured. In the season, the output for a day, on 
one single style, if placed one on top of the other, would 
reach a height equal to eleven times that of Bunker Hill 
monument. Little drums which are to found later, in the 
Five and Ten Cent stores all over the country, vie in im- 
portance with the more expensive boy scout drums, with 
their stained wooden sides and real sheepskin heads. 
One entire room, most uncomfortably hot, is devoted 
to the steaming of thin strips of wood which are later roll- 
ed out to form a foundation for the expensive wooden 
drums, while still another room, filled with large presses, 
turns out sheets of metal with the three-color lithographic 
work which forms the sides of the small but gay tin drums. 
Later when the lithographed tin sheets have been 
clamped together by machinery, girls stretch paper over 
them and they are strung with gay cords to make the 
paper head secure. The wooden drums are tacked very 
carefully by hand, varnished and stretched with sheep- 
skin and beautifully strung with white cord and leather 
ornaments and packed in specially constructed shipping 
boxes. These last named drums are the best type of 
drum found anywhere. 
The success of many of the toys of newer design 
depend on their perfectness of shape, size and cutting and 
so specially constructed machines are used to do the work. 
For instance the ‘‘Makatoy,” a new puzzle construction 
toy issued last year, depends on a machine which cuts ac- 
curately the flat metal parts and presses them out into the 
required shape and design. Then the parts are assembled 
and another machine clamps them together, while wooden 
sticks of a set length and thickness are the work of still 
another design of machine. These parts are then assem- 
bled by hand and packed into individual mailing tubes, 
ready for the market. 
Have you ever wondered how a rocking horse was 
rade, with his beautifully dappled coat of paint and his 
long, flowing mane and tail? When the visitor to Win- 
chendon first arrives he becomes aware that this is the 
home town of the rocking horse, for at the railroad station 
a huge horse presides over the fortunes of the towns- 
people who frequent the station at train time. And second 
in importance is the department at the Converse factory 
devoted to these wonderful steeds. Let us go in. 
In the beginning a machine starts off the work and 
one man handling three machines soon turns out, with the 
aid of sharp knives, a head, a body and a leg in a rough 
state, but perfect as far as they go. From then on the 
horse is brought to a state of completeness by many pairs 
of hands, each of which have their special duty to perform 
in the shaping of these rarvelous animals. 
The workman of the second department, having taken 
possession of the rough parts, with the aid of a file and 
narrow bladed knife, rounds out the eyes, nostrils and 
mouth, found on the head. Then the legs and head are 
nailed onto the body part and another workman with 
scraper and sand paper smooths off the rough edges and 
rakes invisible the joining parts. 
The foundation in now ready for the process of paint- 
ing, the first of which is to dip the wood into glucose, 
which when dry receives a beautiful coat of shiny white 
paint. The dappling is done by a hand spraying machine 
which looks very much like a huge atomizer run by elec- 
tricity. Lastly the hoofs are blackened and the animal 
left to dry. 
Then comes the work of the girls. For the horse 
when next seen is the possessor of two glass eyes; and the 
mane and tail, made. from the finest of calf’s tails were 
already nailed on. The saddles of leather were stuffed, 
the stirrups added and the whole nailed onto the horse. 
Then came the mounting onto rockers which had received 
a coat of paint, by being run through the huge presses. 
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