In 1864, Robert T. Gair began work as a paper merchant, printer, and manufacturer of paper and paperboard specialties in Brooklyn, NY. Early on, he started making folding boxes by scoring the box blanks individually and cutting the flaps by piling 10 or 20 at a time and using a guillotine style knife. In 1879, while examining a seed envelope job which had gone wrong during production in his plant, he saw that the difficulty was due to the fact that the type or printing plates had cut through the paper. He surmised that replacing type or printing plates with rules or knives, the press could then be used for cutting and creasing folding box blanks. And with that, Gair laid the foundation for today’s folding carton industry.
Adapted from Paperboard and Paperboard Containers: A History by Harry J. Bettendorf.
