CARDBOARD. The earliest cardboard was a layer of papyrus, beaten by hand to the desired thickness, pressed and dried by the sun. In the middle ages cardboard was made in the East from grasses. Playing cards so manufactured were painted by hand. The manufacture of machine-made cards is somewhat similar to paper-making. The fibre is boiled, beaten, coloured, if desired, and then put through a machine of the paper-making class. Modern board machines, particularly in America, Canada, England, Germany, Holland, Finland and Scandinavia, have grown enormously in size and capacity during the last decade. Australia also manufactures a portion of the cardboard required for home consumption. In 1927 there were three board-making machines in Australia, one mill producing 4.00o tons per annum.
Finland has a large and increasing production of mechanical wood pulp boards and the output totals about 35,000 tons per year. The exports of wood pulp board from Finland, Jan.–Sept. 1927, totalled 25,712 tons.
One of the cheapest forms of machine-made board is made in Holland and is made from straw which is boiled, beaten and worked up on machines somewhat similar to paper-making machines. In the year 1926 Holland exported 226,510,644 kg. to the value of 20,189,224 gld. Of these exports Great Britain took 183,217,604 kg. to the value of 16,211,936 gld. and America purchased 10,204,614 kg. valued at 934,544 gld. Ireland, South Africa, British India, The Argentine, Australia and New Zealand are also large buyers of Dutch-made strawboards.
As early as March 24, 180i, says Mr. A. Dykes Spicer in The Paper Trade, an Act provided for the im position of duties on paper, pasteboard, millboard and scaleboard made in Great Britain or imported. These duties were of two kinds, i.e., customs and excise. Under the former a duty of 1 od. per lb. was imposed on goods scheduled as first-class. Pasteboard, millboard and scaleboard paid 20s. per cwt. About the beginning of last century the average amount charged on all paper made in Great Britain was from 2d. to 21d. per lb., and £200,000 were obtained from this charge. No paper-maker was allowed to make boards, nor might a board mill be opened within 4 mile of a paper mill. Af ter considerable agitation the duty on pasteboard imported into Great Britain was raised to f3.8s.2d. per cwt. In 1853, 21d. per lb. was imposed on imported pasteboard. In 1860 Gladstone introduced a bill, which was carried by a majority of nine, for the repeal of the paper duty as a whole. On May 18, 1861, Gladstone moved that the paper duties be repealed and both the import and excise duties ceased.
Since 1 goo the container industry has developed enormously, and this has resulted in a greatly increased consumption of cardboard of various special kinds. Many items of food are customarily packeted. The enor mous growth of the cigarette industry has also, particularly in America and Great Britain, meant the annual consumption of thousands of tons of light cardboard of fairly good special quality. The soap industry is another large consumer of cardboard for wrapping, and the boot and shoe industry and the textile trades also favour the use of the paper-box or a combination of wood and board manufactured from straw, waste-paper or wood-pulp.
of last century America held a commanding position in the manufacture of boards for making good-class paper-boxes, and "American board" was accepted as a trade term. Great Britain now competes successfully for European trade. Approximately 200,000 tons of boards are manufactured in Eng land and Scotland annually. Canada has also made great and rapid strides in the production of boards made from wood pulp. It is probable that the industry will continue to grow. Since the World War, Finland has made a successful bid for a share in the world's markets, and Germany, Austria, Belgium, France and Italy also maintain a substantial output of cardboard for home requirements and for export. The trade in Christmas and New Year greetings has also become a great and specialized industry in Europe and America, and cardboard enters largely into the manufacture of these lines. (See BOX-MAKING.) British Imports.—In the year 1924, imports of millboard, leatherboard, cardboard and pasteboard into Great Britain totalled 1,284,986 cwt. to the value of 4335,939 in 1925, 1,414,175 cwt. to the value of 4476,908, and in 1926,
cwt. to the value of 4727,909. In 1924 the British imports of strawboard totalled 3,748,978 cwt. to the value of 4650,956; in
138 cwt. to the value of L1,569,945 and in 1926, 3,889,437 cwt. to the value of 4591,501. During 1924 Great Britain exported 156,485 cwt. of millboard, strawboard, leatherboard and cardboard to the value of f256,449; in 1925, 144,190 cwt. valued at f245,287; in 1926, 154,08 7 cwt. valued at £274,754.During 1926 Great Britain exported playing cards to the value of f61,847, and boxes and cartons of paper and cardboard valued at L197,654; while in the same year the re-exports of various millboards, leather boards, and cardboards amounted to 9,254 cwt., valued at f 12,592, besides 8,36o cwt. of strawboard valued at £4,728. During the first nine months of 1927 the British imports of millboard, leatherboard, cardboard and pasteboard amounted to 1,313,102 cwt. valued at 4302,029, and the exports of millboards, etc., totalled 147,582 cwt., valued at
Boards made in Great Britain and in the United States include real strawboards, leatherboards, fence-boards, shoe stiffeners, shanks, millboards, jacquard cards, boards made from straw, old paper and wood pulp, glazed and rolled pressing boards, presspahn boards, fibre boards, chromo and art-coated boards, coated box boards, cloth-lined boards, hand-made millboards, boards for trunk-making, waterproof panel boards, drawing-boards, flaxibre, air-dried millboards for account books, pure rope hand-made boards for book-binders, folio boards, veneer boards, "SX" boards (for walls, ceilings, etc.), enamel boards, container boards, insulated boards, waterproof panel boards (for ships' cabins, electric cars, motor vans, exteriors and interiors of houses, etc.) hollow ware (from pressed wood pulp), pasteboards, mount boards, ticket boards, engine boards, middles, railway boards (for railway tickets), ticket boards (as used on public vehicles, for sports, etc.), duplex, triplex, etc., Bristol boards, ivory boards (for visiting cards), embossing boards, silk boards, etching boards, and various other kinds of boards. (See PAPER AND PULP MANUFACTURE.) Standard Sizes.—The standard sizes for boards range from thin strawboards 22in. x 32in., 8oz. to 2ooz., to folding box boards of no standard size but usually 28in. x 39in. Cut cards are qualified under nine heads namely: Thirds, 'tin. x Sin.; extra thirds, On. x Sin.; small, 2 81n. x 381n. ; carte-de-visite, 21in. x 48in.; large, sin. x 42in.; postcard, 32in. x 53in.; court, 32in. x 42in.; double small, 381n. x din.; cabinet (photo), x 621n.; double large, 42in. x 6in.; quad small, din. x 72in.; quad large, 6in. x gin. Boards trimmed are royal, postal, imperial, large imperial and index.
Cardboard proper or, to use the correct term, pasteboard, is made by combining several sheets of paper together by the application of paste or other similar adhesive by hand or machine. Pasteboards can be made to almost any desired thickness by using varying substances of raw material known in the trade as "middles" for the body or "midale" which, when combined with a covering of white paper on each side, varies in thickness from 1/64th to 1/16th of an inch, so far as this class of board is used for general commercial purposes by the printing trade. The greater tonnage of paste or pasted boards is made on huge machines from "middles," and white covering papers in reels, the thinner substances, as a rule, being combined from three reels (one of "middles" and two of white paper) placed on the pasting end of the machine, where either the "middle" or the covering paper receives a coating of paste from revolving rollers and is then passed over steam heated drying cylinders, finally being cut into sheets of a special or standard size which ever may be required.
Some makers produce the com plete board in one operation whilst others re-wind after calender ing, and cut the reels into sheets later on. Either method may produce a satisfactory board. By the same process coloured paste board can be made by using tinted paper instead of white. The advantages of making pasteboards by hand are several. Small quantities of any materials (forming the "body" or "middles") can be pasted up with suitable or selected papers, and in any size which is economical for the printer (or anyone else) to use. Almost any substance thicker than that which can be produced on a big machine can be combined, hand pressed, dried and glazed between zinc sheets under varying pressure on a rolling-machine.
Large quantities of thick strawboards, wood pulp and other thick boards are lined up in this way, or by a specially constructed machine capable of treating this kind of material. Pasteboards are used mostly in the printing trade in standard sizes, viz., loin. x 25in., 22in. x 32in. and 221in. x 282in., to be printed in either one or more colours and then cut to any desired size. Pasteboards (white and coloured) are cut into standard sizes of cards, most of which are used by printers. These cards are cut by rotary card cutting machines to ensure clean edges and accurate measurement. Pasteboards are also used largely in the manufacture of certain kinds of cardboard boxes and folding cartons; also by pattern card makers, and in the hosiery and lace trades; in fact, indirectly in all trades where cardboard is a necessary item.
The manufacture of pasteboards in Gre t Britain runs into a huge annual tonnage, but very large quantities are imported from the Continent, especially from Germany. The industry in the United States has reached enormous dimensions, but the official census of manufactures only distinguishes that part of the indus try not carried on by paper-makers, and precise dimensions can not therefore be stated. (J. L. GR.)
