The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1871-12-08
PRESS
FRIDAY MORNING, DEC. s, 1871.
The Government Printing Establishment,

hihtlng Establishment
The building is of brick and in the form .
an L., 300 feet by 60 feet, by 173 feet bv eo
feet. In this structure all of the nress-,,,or,,
and binding for the Government are done
The press-room occupies the lower floor of
the building, and is the largest and most ner-
feet in the world. Before the rebellion twen-
ty-three presses, four small job presses and
one rulng-machine were adequate to print all
the work ordered by Congress and the execu-
tive departments. After the war commenced,
thirty presses and sixteen ruling-machnes
were unequal to the demands of the War and
Navy Departments, and much of the Con-
gressional printing was laid aside to make
room for the extra work.
Now, arranged on each side of the broad
aisle, are twenty-six Adams presses, fourteen
Hoe cylinder presses, thirteen small jobbing
presses and one Bullock press, making an ag-
gregate of fifty-four presses.
The Bullock press has capacity equal to
sixteen Adams presses, and is used exclusive
ly for printing the Agricultural Report, a
work OF some seven hundred pages, with an
annual edition of two hundred and tweuty-
five thousand volumes. All these presses.
together with the other machinery, are driven
by two steam engines of fifty-horse power.
both stationed in the press-room. In this
room also are four hydraulic presses, usedj for
taking the impression out of printed work two
cutting machines and two elevators. The re-
pairing OF the presses and machinery is car
rled on in sEcD which extends from the
press-room into the yard some sixty feet
This department is in charge of skillful ma
chlnlsts, who are KEPT constantly employed
The paper warehouse through which passes
all the paper used in public printing, extends
south OF the repair shop some eighty feet, and
is two stories high. There passed through
this warehouse for consumption, during the
year 1870, some seventy-five thousand reams
OF paper OF all classes required for public
printing, which cost an aggregate of nearly
nalf million OF dollars. Such perfect con
troll has the Congressional printer over this
department., that not quire of paper can be
oDtalned except on requisition therefor to that
officer.
The lower floor of the new wing contains
all the stock, leather, cloth, paper, &C., used
in the bindery.' Adjoining this room is the
fire-proOf room, containing all the stereotype
plates, DC, and adjacent is the carriage-way,
separating the boiler-house, roller-house and
stables from the other buildings. These
premises are constantly guarded night and
day.
The second floor is occupied as Offices for
the Congressional Printer and his clerks,
large thorOughly-ighted room for the proof
readers, and as composing rooms. Adjoining
IS the clerks room, while adjacent to that is
the paymaster's room, containing an immense
safe OF the most improved patent. There is
also library in the new addition, which is to
be filled with copies of all the books, docu-
ments, &C., printed in the Government Print
ing Office since its organization. The remain
der of the second floor, extending the whole
length of the building, is used as composing
room, and is occupied ON each side by impos-
ing stones, chase-racks, proof-presses, &c.
There are more than sixty thousand pounds
of type of all varieties in this room, and about
two hundred and fifty compositors.
opening out OF the compOsing-room is the
stereotype foundry, where all the plates re-
quired for use in the Office are made. The
plates annually produced amount to $4,000,
and this department alone saves the govern
ment more than $4,000.
The bindery occupies the entire third floor.
This department executes some of the best
work, in point of style and excellence, done
in the world. There are twenty-nine presses,
/ twenty-five machines for cutting, paging,
numbering, &C., and nineteen ruling ma
chimes constantly in operation. The ruling
machines have been brought to such perfec-
ton that they will perform all the work that
has hitherto, of necessity, been done by hand.
We were shown one thousand huge vol
umes, recently ordered, in which the military
records" of the officers and soldiers engaged
in the late war are to be copied from the worn
out records in the War Department. 1t will
take twenty-five clerks five years to complete
the work.
The fourth story l. used as a folding-room
and here are stored tons upon tons of printed
documents, piled high to the ceiling. The
specification-room, where the list of patents,
claims and specifications of the Patent Office
Ia business amounting to some 100000 per
annum) are printed, is also on this floor.
One can scarcely form an idea of the magni-
tude and Importance of this, the greatest
printing and binding establishment in the
world, unless they tread the long rooms, amid
the deafening roar of the huge machinery and
the incessant click, click of the bindery, where
one thousand employees of both sexes are in
dustriously at work, or look over the yearly
disbursements for the purchase of material
and compensation of service, aggregating a
sum total of 81 ,609,S5 92.
Notwithstanding the expense seems very
considerable, and is constantly increasing,
under the necessities ofa growing population,
yet this department., by its economies, annu-
ally saves the government half million dol
lars, and at the same time, by improving the
standard of printing and binding, strongly ex-
empllfles our progress as nation.