The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-09-05

y
Near bv. the ink factory, which turns out
ton q week, in dozen colors ana shauSs'
Busy, humming little steam mills grino up Sns
ingredients. The workmen who mix ana
measure them are rudimentary rainooWs,
their garments, faces, and bare brawny arms
shine IN black and blue, green and vermiion.
] Then the paper-mill. Clippings of the
] bindery and envelope room, and other waste
of the Department, furnish its raw material.
The supply always far exceeds the demand.
Great vaults are stuffed with soiled sheets and
strips, waiting TO be made over again. Lives
there an official with soul so dead who never
to himself hath said:--'I will expend un-
grudgingly the public supplies2' Here are
enormous piles of new Internal Revenue books.
each as large as Tribune volume, on costly
paper and in solid binding. For slight errors
in print or ruling they are thrown aside to
make paper of.
Greenbacks destroyed by fire or otherwise
have reached about one-half of one per cent.
on the issues already called in. OF the earliest
issue OF fractional currency, 25 per cent is
still out; of the second, 175 per cent. It is
believed that fully 10 per cent. will never re-
turn. OfcOurse, this is clear gain to Govern
ment. But great deal of currency comes in
soiled and mutilated. New notes replace it.
The old, with gold notes, which are never
issued twice, come to the paper-mill.
In the engine-rOom is a slowly revolving
iron cylinder, as large as a hogshead, and four
times as long. 1t has three locks, whose keys
are held by custOdians appointed 10y the Sec
retary. After the old notes have been cut
apart and punched to cancel them, the three
Commissioners see them locked fast into this
cylinder. Here with water and chemicals,
they are churned for twenty-four hours. Then
the Commissioners (each watch upon the
other, and all upon the paper-maker) return
with their keys and hold solemn inquest lest
some notes should remain intact, to be patched,
reunited, and again passed for money. But
they find them decomposed, and requiring
locks no longer.
Next the mass is pumped up into the
huge tanks in the room above, the ink washed
out, leaving it white like cheese-curd; and
coloring matter mixed in, until it is just the
hue wanted for the new paper. Afterwards
the pulp is strained through holes which fine
needles could barely pass, and next spread
thin and even upon very close sieve of steel
wires.
Now it is in the form of paper, but not
strong enough to bear its own weight. Here
wire frame, passed down upon it, leaving it
thinner at some points than at others, stamps
it with the 'water- mark''-so called because
impressed while the pulp is wet. This one
is enclosed in a little square, and readily
seen by holding the finished paper up to the
light The Bank of England relies solely
upon its water-mark for protection against
| counterfeits. That is impressed, not with
wires, but with a metallic plate, laboriously
| filed out by hand-the work of years. A
| grandfather, father, and son, each bearing the
honored name of John Smith, have done this
filing for ''the old lady of Threadneedle street"
through three generations.
| The endless sheet of pulp on this endless
| sieve passes on, and on, between heated roll
lers, the water squeezing out and evaporating,
| the mass growing frmer and frmer, until, at
| the further end of the long room, it comes out
an endless roll of finished paper, six feet wide,
which knives, also running by machinery,
clip into convenient wrapping sheets. The
| paper mill is noisy monster, and allowed to
run only through the night. By day, its
clatter would disturb the general drowsiness
| of the department.
Hard by is the envelope room. Here a
steel cutter, like an inverted tin dish with
sharp edges, is placed on pile OF paper under
a press. One turn at the lever, and it has
cut out five hundred envelopes. Next still
open, they are spread one hundred upon a
board, each tapping over the others, so that a
strip of one-eighth of inch along its upper
edge is left exposed. Over this girl, with a
brush, spreads the mucilage which the writer
is to mosten at last when ready to seal his
letter. Then the board, with a score o.
others, is placed ON a frame exposed to the
air. After this gum on the upper flaps grows
dry, the envelopes, while yet without fold
are laid in thick punches on magical, vora
cious, impatient little machine. 1t seizes
them with hungry teeth, instantaneously
brushes mucilage upon each end and the
lower flap, folds the four flaps in, tightly seal
the three lower ones, leaving the other un
fastened for the reception OF the letter, an6
there is your envelope This cunning, won
derful automatou no larger than sewing
machine, thus folds, seals, and filings out two
thousand per hour
In the engraving room we find half-a-dozel
workmen, each with shade over his eyes, in
= tently peering through his microscope at
little plate of softened steel, which shines lik
t a mirror. With the burin Ga delicate penci
of fharnened steel) he is slowly plOuhging finest
5 minutest burrows, which the naked eye cal
barely see. We lean over the shoulder of one
f and find him copying on steel a sketch iron
| the paper before him, with two groups-on
, cutting wheat with the sickle of old, the other
3 with our great reaping machine. A littl
thing that you could cover with two silve
} dollars, yet he may spend year in en-
craving it.
, Each workman does only small portion @
a note. He is to follow exactly the sketc
given him, and yet-marvellOus individual
, ity !-even in these infnitesimal lines an ex
pert will detect their author, just as we recog
nize handwriting. In both steel and WOO
engraving for books, foreign nations excel us
But on this work we are far in advance G
them. American bank notes show the fines
' engraving in the world. The best WORKINGS
l in Government service are paid about $500
per year. In private employ they sometime
| oo,,, G1O OOO