This Will Not Take Long

This post card is a pictures of people who have been working on the railroad somewhere in Canada. They have taken a convenient break to both pose for a picture and to let a steam engine through and, perhaps, to sing, "I've Been Working on the Railroad". It looks like it might be a real photo post card.

You now know everything that I know about the picture on the front of this post card.

The back tells us a little bit more. The back confirms what we thought about the front, that it might be a real photo post card.

In the box where the postage stamp belongs, the frame contains the word VELOX and there are four diamonds, one in each corner. VELOX is the first commercially successful type of paper that was used for real photo cards. It was invented by Leo Baekeland and sold to Eastman Kodak in the late 1800s. VELOX makes black-and-white images suitable for contact printing. The four diamonds tell us that particular VELOX paper was used between 1907 and 1914. This would also explain why it is a divided back era card, too.

Not only did he invent the VELOX paper, he also invented in 1907 the first inexpensive plastic that helped to develop the beginning of the modern plastics industry. It is called Bakelite. I remember learning how to perform several machining maneuvers in high school on Bakelite.

I have included a closer look at the postage stamp box as well as the fact that the card was “MADE IN CANADA”.