Additional memo from Mr. Gumbinner 8 Stencil Construction

While Speed-O-Print and Gestetner  were  by far our biggest customers others were Rochester Stencils, Canadian Polychrome stencils and several New York City dealers.  While a large percentage of the stencils we coated were blue we also coated green, white and yellow stencils.  We occasionally coated black cushion sheets which were mounted between the stencil and backing sheet.  To completely prevent type filling we would for the premium stencils mount a sheet of pliofilm, rubber hydrochloride made by Goodyear, on top of the stencil.  It was attached with removable glue dots so correction fluid could be applied if an error was made.  We later glued the pliofilm to a folded tab. It could be used for several stencils.  Louis Mestre made a machine to make the tabs.  He had also made a machine to assemble the stencil and backing sheet.  A roll of backing sheet paper and a roll of the stencil tissue were mounted on the machine. A keyhole was punched in the backing sheet and a line of glue was applied.  After the he stencil and backing sheet were cut off, the direction was changed at a right angle and then fed through two multigraphs to print the heading and scale, and then a unit that punched the mounting holes on the backing sheet.  The ink for printing the scale was purchased from IPI.  But I found that if we used paralac it worked as well. The pliofilm machine was installed on the second floor of an old school building on Prospect street. It was operated by Ray Lauzon.

Additional memo from Mr. Gumbinner 7 Gestetner

Gestetner which made a two drum stencil duplicator in the Tottenham section of London had made a number of years ago an agreement with A B Dick not to compete in the American market.  This agreement was now ended and Gestetner made an arrangement with Polychrome for Polychrome to furnish the stencils for the Americas.  Polychrome had a dealer in Chicago,  Arnold Rose, who sold a large number of die impressed stencils when he visited us in Yonkers we offered to take him to lunch.  He asked for a drink.  We had a half bottle of Scotch.  He finished it and said he was still hungry.  We sent out to buy another which he finished.  He said he had cut down on drinking. He had been drinking  two bottles of whiskey and a case of beer a day.

Additional memo from Mr. Gumbinner 6 Stencil improvements and Speed-o-Print

Our tests showed excessive type filling.  I made a solution that was coated on one side by a coating unit installed at the back end of the coating tunnels which consisted only of nitrocellulose and a plasticizer.  As this coating had a lot of glare I had diatomaceous earth solution put in the middle of the drying tunnel which solved the problem.  For the lower price Polychrome label stencils this was added to the back coating solution.  Later when we made the stencils for the Gestetner duplicator we added an anti-static coating in the middle of the tunnel.  Mr. Halpern made an arrangement with Speed-O-Print that made a hand operated stencil duplicator and was located in a former Bell and Howell building on Larchmont Street, Chicago to take over their stencil coating and mounting facilities.  Speed-O-Print sales manager was Gibby Grant.  We moved their finishing equipment to Yonkers.  They had an 18 inch multigraph to print the heading and scale on the stencils.  The man who ran this press was brought to Yonkers.

Additional memo from Mr. Gumbinner 5 Union

Polychrome hired a paper cutter.  He was a recruiter for the paper makers union who got the other employees to join.  When the officers of the union were indicted for using the unions money for themselves, they fled to an African country.  The employees then joined a teamster local that was not involved with truck drivers.  I believe it may have been the same local that the Cellofilm  employees belonged to.  Bernie Gold and I visited the building the local owned in Fort Lee.  We offered to take them out to dinner.  We went to a nearby Italian restaurant. I went in and asked for a table.      The maître d’ said there would be a 45 minute wait .  When the men from the union entered, he asked whether they were with me.  When I said yes, he said I will have a table for you in five minutes.  We engaged an experienced labor lawyer to help us negotiate with the union.  Another year when we settled on a ten cent raise for the year and another ten cents for the following year, the man who was assigned by the teamster union to negotiate with Polychrome after four months came to us shaking.  He said we must pay something to the welfare fund or they will kill me. We agreed to pay a nickel an employee that year and a nickel next. 

Additional memo from Mr. Gumbinner 4 Stencil sales

Most of the stencils were for the army.  The  inspectors  were  more interested in how the shipping cartons were marked than to test the stencil to determine whether they met the government standards.  Polychrome had an agent , Tom Wallace in Washington, D.C. who helped us get  the government business.  When I went to visit him,  he took me to the Bureau of engraving where the currency was printed and the Smithsonian.  The first building Polychrome erected was a small one to be the maintenance shop.

Additional memo from Mr. Gumbinner 3 Stencil coating

The stencil coating solution was made by Fred Generlette in the first shed.  He also ran the roller mill in the brick building that was used to grind pigments and make duplicating ink.  Originally we bought nitrocellulose used motion picture film from Cellofilm.  We kept the film rolls in a pit in the yard.  Once it went on fire.  We then bought the nitrocellulose dissolved in ethyl acetate.  When the movies went to safety film.  Cellofilm bought solvent grade nitrocellulose from Hercules and Dupont.  Both Hercules and later Dupont stopped producing nitrocellulose.  Stan Eysman made an arrangement with a French company to be the sole importer of solvent grade nitrocellulose.  Stan Eysman lived in Scotch Plains, NJ.  His wife’s uncle was Julius Boros, one of the top professional tennis players.

Additional memo from Mr. Gumbinner 2 Building at the corner of Alexander and Ashburton

Mr. Halpern bought a lot and building at the corner of Ashburton Avenue and Alexander streets  from an oil company.  The main building was a story and a half.  In the top half there was an office for Mr. Halpern , one for the sales department  Elmer Crabbs was the sales manager.one for the purchasing agent who was Kay Moutal, who I married, and a laboratory.  There was a brick building and three sheds.  In charge of the coating and solution making was Fred Pollack., who had made stencils in Austria. His brother in law was Ernest Brunner who supplied Polychrome with the backing sheet on which the stencil was mounted.  When I arrived they stared to make the stencils from a roll of tissue. Before that Polychrome used Yoshino tissue from Japanese mulberry trees, which was only available as sheets.  The Dexter paper company in Windsor Locks, Conn. Made a tissue from long fiber hemp that was suitable for stencils.  They used an uphill Fourdrinier  to do this.  Their main business was cigarette paper.