Among the various and numerous manufacturing industries on the Pacific Coast, there is a very important one of which very little is heard by the average citizen. This is the manufacture of printing and lithographic inks, upon which much depends.
Prior to four years ago, almost every pound of printing ink used on the Pacific Coast was manufactured in the Eastern States and shipped here at great expense, and in such limited quantities and variety that it was exceedingly difficult for the local printers to obtain the effects that are readily obtained by their Eastern competitors. To-day we have a factory operating in San Francisco that is the fifth largest in the United States and equal in size to all factories combined west of Cincinnati. They are to-day manufacturing fully seventy-five per cent. of all the printing ink used on the Pacific Coast, and furnishing the markets of Australia, Hawaii, Central and South America, and Mexico, as well as China and Japan, with a large proportion of all the inks used in the above-named countries.
It is quite an interesting sight to witness the grinding of these various colors, and the CALIFORNIA INK COMPANY, of No. 113-115 Commercial St., San Francisco, extend a cordial invitation to any one to visit their works and inspect their plant, as they have no secrets and do not make any effort to mystify the public regarding the manufacture of printing ink, as had formerly been done by all manufacturers in their effort to extort fabulous prices for an article that does not warrant it.