COFFINS MADE OF PAPER.
"Here is a very neat style of coffin," remarked a manufacturer of such articles to a New Yoi k reporter. "It is the latest thing out, and is really quite popular." The coffin did not seem to be different from the ordinary kind of casket. It was plain in style, and finished in rosewood, beautifully marked. The handles were of solid silver, and the inside was handsomely covered with cushioned trimming of white silk, neatly quilted, It was evidently a coffin that any modest man of simple tastes Could, offer no objection to being biuied in. " What do you think of it ?" "It is a very neat sort of a coffin, but I don't see anything remarkable about it." " Lift one end of it." The reporter arched his back, grasped the handles firmly and put his strength into a great lift. The casket rose as though it were made of painted air, so light was it, and the experimenter narrowly escaped falling on his back. "It feels as though it were made of paper. How do you make them so light ?'' "It is made of paper," answered the manufacturer, "compressed paper. It is cheaper than wood, can be pressed into shape, is more durable, and can be made much more quickly and easily. The veneering is of another piece of paper, very j thin, which is painted to resemble wood, by machinery. When the coffin is put together it is varnished and trimmed and then it is ready for occupancy." 1 ' How did you happen to invent it ?" " I didn't invent it, but almost anyone ought to have done so. Paper has been used for car-wheels for years past. Doors are now made of the same substance. Two thick paper boards, stamped and moulded into panels and glazed together with glue and potash, and then rolled through heavy rollers, are coming into use. They are better than wood, in that they will not shrink, swell, crack or warp. They are made waterproof with a mixture. "Boats are also made of paper," continued the manufacturer, "and for certain kinds of racing they are better even than the ordinary kinds of wood, and far cheaper." "You will soon make your whole coffin out ot paper," suggested the reporter. " We are not far away from that now," replied the maker. " They are making window-glass from linen or cotton, modified by chemical action. When the glass is made it is dipped in a preparation of camphor and alcohol, which gives it the character of parchment. It can then be molded and cut into transparent sheets I that are remarkably tough and can stand I double strain of the ordinary glass. Yes, sir, it will not be long before not only coffins for the dead but houses for the living can be made from the foundation to the roof out of paper. Who says we are not an inventive race ?"
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Te Aroha News, 26 November 1887, Page 7
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489COFFINS MADE OF PAPER. Te Aroha News, 26 November 1887, Page 7
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