(Pictured on the left is an actual page from Samuel J. Murray's own book on varnishes.)
August 16, 1890
The Indianapolis News
One of the Largest Establishments In the World
Some of the Features of Manufacturing Playing Cards
WHEN you are shuffling a highly finished deck of cards and their polished surfaces are gliding smoothly over one another, does it ever occur to you that the manufacture of these alluring instruments of entertainment is one of the industries of Indianapolis?
The card factory is situated near the edge of the woods at the extreme southern extremity of the city on the Belt Railroad, not far from Shelby street. Not many people pass that way, and it is therefore brought to the attention of comparatively few.
Those who inquire about the business are surprised at its extent. Recently an entire carload of cards was sent from the factory to a single firm in Chicago. Your grain merchant or heavy machinery manufacturer may look upon car-load shipments as an everyday occurrence, but sending out a car load of this kind is not so common. The National Card Company labeled the car conspicuously, gave it a few touches of decoration and hbad it photographed. In the car were 125,000 packs of cards. With them the entire population of Indianapolis and its suburbs could have invited another city of like size to sit down and have a quiet game at tables for two. The company has sent out four such car loads to different parts of the country, during its several months of activity in this city.
Some of the processes of card making are secret, but a News reporter who visited the establishment of the National Card Company was permitted to see much that was interesting. It is a commodious building of four stories, 210 x 60 feet. The cleanliness everywhere gives it a strange appearance for a factory. About 150 persons, including many girls, are employed. A deck of cards is printed on a sheet about the size of a page of The News. The red and black spots, spread over the sheet without any marked boundary lines, have a strange and forlorn appearance, but the kings, queens and jacks, gathered together in a phalanx, are imposing and at home. These sheets, each a deck of cards, were undergoing various treatment on the first and second floors. They had a dull, uncombed look until they were placed, several at a time, between copper sheets and run between heavy chilled-iron rollers. These roller machines each require three-horse power, and they have the same effect on the card-sheet as ironing has on a starched collar, it comes out polished, glistening and pliant. The individual cards are brought out by the cutting or “punching” machine, which closes down on a sheet and bites out the cards, leaving a border of waste-card surrounding the holes. The cards slip down to an edge of the machine and are gathered up into decks by a girl. Automatic machinery for gathering the cards is soon to be used. The waste paper is scooped down a chute leading to the basement, where it is gathered into a machine like a hay press and made into neat, wire-bound bales to be sent back to the mill. One-fourth of the paper used is sent back in this way.
The decks of cards coming from the punching machine are all arranged in order, and though gathered in great piles (a punching machine will cut 2,000 packs a day) each deck is distinct. This makes it easier for the ‘porters.” These are girls who rapidly run over the cards, first examining the backs and then the faces, and if any card has a flaw it is rejected. A little stand near the sorter contains cards of all denominations and from this the place of rejected pasteboards is supplied. The sorters thus play the part of dealer all day long. The high grade gilt-edged cards are clamped in long solid blocks. The sides of the blocks (the card edges) are scraped and sheets of gold foil are laid on and rubbed smoothly in.
In a room upstairs the scene was striking. An immense, unbroken sheet of paper ran from roller to roller down the length of the place, hanging almost to the floor between each, and forming so imposing mass. This great stretch of paper contained the impress of innumerable decks of cards to be cut off into sheets. It had been printed from a cylinder press something like that of a newspaper press, and was hanging up to dry. Near it was a machine for printing the “plaid” backs of cards. The paper passed over a brass roller which dipped into liquid ink, and the final result of yards of paper colored like cloth was beautiful. The establishment has also flat two color printing presses for the finer grades of cards.
Cards are made of thin sheets of paper. For the cheapest grades three sheets are used, the middle one being of inferior quality. The faces and backs are printed separately, then pasted on automatic pasting machines, after which they are pressed in hydraulic presses. They are then dried and sized with soap sizing, and polished on the heavy plating machines. In manufacturing the best grades of cards there are often as many as fifty processes to produce a high finish. Often they are dampened as many as twelve times and dried after each process. The establishment is one of four in this country which do the entire work of cardmaking. There are two large factories in New York and one in Cincinnati, besides that in this city. The one here is thorough equipped, and machinery is being added which, the officers of the company say, will increase the present capacity of 10,000 packs per day to from 15,000 to 16,000.
Cards can be made very cheaply, and the decks made for five cents are not sold at a “fearful sacrifice”, as one might imagine, but at a good profit. The card company of this city manufacture several grades, from the cheap “calico” and “plaid” backs to the highly finished gilt edge. In a few months it is expected to turn out extraordinarily fine cards which will retail from a dollar to a dollar and a half.
Considerable enterprise is shown in bringing out new designs for backs, and the reporter was shown a number of the artist’s designs. “Here is a design that will live forever” said A. Crusius, the Secretary, with a keen special appreciation. It was a mass of graceful curves, very pleasing to the eye. “If our company ever ceases to exist that will be taken up by other people.” Special designs of tennis, base ball and other sports are among the novelties in backs. R. H. McCutcheon is President of the National Card Company, Samuel J. Murray, the Vice President and General Manager, has had nine years of experience in a similar concern of Cincinnati. A. Crusius is Secretary, J. C. McCutcheon Treasurer and Victor E. Mauger General Agent. The company ships cards to all corners of the United States and to foreign countries. “I am in thorough sympathy with The News on the tariff question,” remarked Vice President Murray. “There is 100 per cent protection on playing cards, which is entirely useless. American playing cards are the cheapest and best in ths world and can compete with any. We ship goods all over the world. In the meantime we use in their production imported materials, on which we pay a heavy duty."
NOTE: The picture on the left is from Samuel J. Murray's personal notes on waterproofing the paper. This same formula appears on page 585 of "The Scientific American Cyclopedia of Receipts, Notes and Queries" edited by Albert Allis Hopkins in 1901.
August 16, 1890
The Indianapolis News
One of the Largest Establishments In the World
Some of the Features of Manufacturing Playing Cards
WHEN you are shuffling a highly finished deck of cards and their polished surfaces are gliding smoothly over one another, does it ever occur to you that the manufacture of these alluring instruments of entertainment is one of the industries of Indianapolis?
The card factory is situated near the edge of the woods at the extreme southern extremity of the city on the Belt Railroad, not far from Shelby street. Not many people pass that way, and it is therefore brought to the attention of comparatively few.
Those who inquire about the business are surprised at its extent. Recently an entire carload of cards was sent from the factory to a single firm in Chicago. Your grain merchant or heavy machinery manufacturer may look upon car-load shipments as an everyday occurrence, but sending out a car load of this kind is not so common. The National Card Company labeled the car conspicuously, gave it a few touches of decoration and hbad it photographed. In the car were 125,000 packs of cards. With them the entire population of Indianapolis and its suburbs could have invited another city of like size to sit down and have a quiet game at tables for two. The company has sent out four such car loads to different parts of the country, during its several months of activity in this city.
Some of the processes of card making are secret, but a News reporter who visited the establishment of the National Card Company was permitted to see much that was interesting. It is a commodious building of four stories, 210 x 60 feet. The cleanliness everywhere gives it a strange appearance for a factory. About 150 persons, including many girls, are employed. A deck of cards is printed on a sheet about the size of a page of The News. The red and black spots, spread over the sheet without any marked boundary lines, have a strange and forlorn appearance, but the kings, queens and jacks, gathered together in a phalanx, are imposing and at home. These sheets, each a deck of cards, were undergoing various treatment on the first and second floors. They had a dull, uncombed look until they were placed, several at a time, between copper sheets and run between heavy chilled-iron rollers. These roller machines each require three-horse power, and they have the same effect on the card-sheet as ironing has on a starched collar, it comes out polished, glistening and pliant. The individual cards are brought out by the cutting or “punching” machine, which closes down on a sheet and bites out the cards, leaving a border of waste-card surrounding the holes. The cards slip down to an edge of the machine and are gathered up into decks by a girl. Automatic machinery for gathering the cards is soon to be used. The waste paper is scooped down a chute leading to the basement, where it is gathered into a machine like a hay press and made into neat, wire-bound bales to be sent back to the mill. One-fourth of the paper used is sent back in this way.
The decks of cards coming from the punching machine are all arranged in order, and though gathered in great piles (a punching machine will cut 2,000 packs a day) each deck is distinct. This makes it easier for the ‘porters.” These are girls who rapidly run over the cards, first examining the backs and then the faces, and if any card has a flaw it is rejected. A little stand near the sorter contains cards of all denominations and from this the place of rejected pasteboards is supplied. The sorters thus play the part of dealer all day long. The high grade gilt-edged cards are clamped in long solid blocks. The sides of the blocks (the card edges) are scraped and sheets of gold foil are laid on and rubbed smoothly in.
In a room upstairs the scene was striking. An immense, unbroken sheet of paper ran from roller to roller down the length of the place, hanging almost to the floor between each, and forming so imposing mass. This great stretch of paper contained the impress of innumerable decks of cards to be cut off into sheets. It had been printed from a cylinder press something like that of a newspaper press, and was hanging up to dry. Near it was a machine for printing the “plaid” backs of cards. The paper passed over a brass roller which dipped into liquid ink, and the final result of yards of paper colored like cloth was beautiful. The establishment has also flat two color printing presses for the finer grades of cards.
Cards are made of thin sheets of paper. For the cheapest grades three sheets are used, the middle one being of inferior quality. The faces and backs are printed separately, then pasted on automatic pasting machines, after which they are pressed in hydraulic presses. They are then dried and sized with soap sizing, and polished on the heavy plating machines. In manufacturing the best grades of cards there are often as many as fifty processes to produce a high finish. Often they are dampened as many as twelve times and dried after each process. The establishment is one of four in this country which do the entire work of cardmaking. There are two large factories in New York and one in Cincinnati, besides that in this city. The one here is thorough equipped, and machinery is being added which, the officers of the company say, will increase the present capacity of 10,000 packs per day to from 15,000 to 16,000.
Cards can be made very cheaply, and the decks made for five cents are not sold at a “fearful sacrifice”, as one might imagine, but at a good profit. The card company of this city manufacture several grades, from the cheap “calico” and “plaid” backs to the highly finished gilt edge. In a few months it is expected to turn out extraordinarily fine cards which will retail from a dollar to a dollar and a half.
Considerable enterprise is shown in bringing out new designs for backs, and the reporter was shown a number of the artist’s designs. “Here is a design that will live forever” said A. Crusius, the Secretary, with a keen special appreciation. It was a mass of graceful curves, very pleasing to the eye. “If our company ever ceases to exist that will be taken up by other people.” Special designs of tennis, base ball and other sports are among the novelties in backs. R. H. McCutcheon is President of the National Card Company, Samuel J. Murray, the Vice President and General Manager, has had nine years of experience in a similar concern of Cincinnati. A. Crusius is Secretary, J. C. McCutcheon Treasurer and Victor E. Mauger General Agent. The company ships cards to all corners of the United States and to foreign countries. “I am in thorough sympathy with The News on the tariff question,” remarked Vice President Murray. “There is 100 per cent protection on playing cards, which is entirely useless. American playing cards are the cheapest and best in ths world and can compete with any. We ship goods all over the world. In the meantime we use in their production imported materials, on which we pay a heavy duty."
NOTE: The picture on the left is from Samuel J. Murray's personal notes on waterproofing the paper. This same formula appears on page 585 of "The Scientific American Cyclopedia of Receipts, Notes and Queries" edited by Albert Allis Hopkins in 1901.