[QUOTE=steve B;1108591]
Quote:
Originally Posted by teetwoohsix
I'll take a stab at what the factories would have had. More educated guess than anything but having worked in manufacturing plants a lot I figure I've got a good feel for what makes sense.
What they would produce were complete packs of cigarettes. The plant would generally be setup for that and not much else.
So they would have a machine that would cut and fold the boxes and other cardboard pack materials. And one that would pack the cigarettes in foil inside the pack then wrap and seal it. Foil/pack/product/card/outer label/cellophane/tax stamp. A busy concern might have all those functions built in one machine. A more general producer might have different machines that would allow some easy flexibility in package size.
Shipping what would be basically empty boxes assuming slide and shell packages would be silly. If the box was a half inch high two boxes assembed would take about as much space as 25 shipped flat. (very rough calculation based on a guess that the cardboard was about as thick as a modern card.)They'd be shipped flat. Once presses fed by rolls of paper became common the wrappers would be shipped in rolls.
The packaging machines either could take a box that wasn't finished and fold and glue it into a box. Typically if the box will be made by the packing machine or a box machine the printing plant will supply them die cut so the flaps are ready to be folded.
What they might have printed was the cancellation on the tax stamp that was the last thing applied to the pack. By 1910 the post office was supplying rolls of stamps to companies for use in bulk mailing machines (And vending machines) But the cancels were still largely applied at the post office.
Companies like cigarette companies were responsible for cancelling the tax stamps when they were applied.
That would be the most likely thing printed by the distribution plant. The process isn't lithography but a form of typography. Usually a metal roller that got inked and then printed the cancel as the stamps ran through the machine.
I'm not positive these stamps came in rolls, but it seems likely. I may be able to find out.
of the stamps shown at this link, the left one is actually an ATC cancelled stamp from march 1911.
http://www.rdhinstl.com/tpd/cigarette.jpg
I found this picture of a packing plant, but it's not very good.
Very few companies have run a plant of any sort that produced the entire product or nearly the entire product including packaging etc. The only one I know of was Fords River Rouge plant - Ore in cars out.
Steve B
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Thanks for the response Steve, but check out this link:
http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-newsouth/4402
One paragraph, in particular, says this:
" Factories in North Carolina began printing cigarette-packaging material, such as labels, cartons, and containers, and produced cigarette paper, tipping, and filter rods. other suppliers furnished tinfoil, cellophane, and poly-film".
So, I think they were printing more than the cancellation on the tax stamp.
For the record, I know the ALC was printing both backs and fronts. I just wondered if at some point, due to the heavy production, they may have found it to be a bit easier to have the backs of the more popular brands (Piedmont & Sweet Caporal) printed at the factories. I'm not saying it was, just wondering if it could have been possible.
Another thing, it seems odd in a way that after printing these beautiful fronts, that they would then slap a sheet of freshly printed backs on top of the fronts (causing WST's). But, in a scenario where the sheets were shipped (uncut) to the factories with the pre-printed fronts, these people printing the backs and stacking them wouldn't be taking any pride in the beautiful work done on the fronts. Hence, the WST's.
*Disclaimer* I need to again point out that none of what I suggested above should be taken as factual whatsoever- I'm just drumming up conversation based on pure specualtion and nothing more.
Sincerely, Clayton