Hi Steve-
Just quoting part of your post here:
" That's very interesting. It would be interesting to know which factories.
As I read it it doesn't specifically say that the factories in NC that were producing the paper and doing the printing were the same factories that made the cigarettes and packed them.
Manufacturing is all about producing the object as cost effectively as possible.
So.....
Possible?
For the printing yes, possible. But unlikely. They would need a press, a camera or artist to make the plates, a separate room for each, and workers who knew how to run them. Possibly a cutter as well, although I think cutting locally wouldbe by far the most likely."
Yeah, I'm still trying to dig further for more specifics, but from what I've been finding, these tobacco factories where more advanced than the factories of low skilled workers of say, the 1850's. What I'm trying to really nail down is the fact that I believe some of the factories did actually print their own packaging as part of the whole process. I would like to find out where those Piedmont uncut pack sheets were discovered. Those, to me, seem like something that would be printed at the tobacco factory, as that write up stated (the article was about tobacco factories, although I don't know which ones.)
As we can see, a lot of information from the eighties turned out to be (unintentionally) wrong, or off mark. Discovering new information is not a bad thing, if it is accurate. I will never present this as fact, unless I'm 100% sure. But, I enjoy talking about these things more than I do talking about some of the other topics on the board lately (no offense meant to anyone).
And-I'm not trying to re-invent the wheel either
If I can find anything worthy, I will post more. Thanks to everyone who's jumped in the fray
Sincerely, Clayton