The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1875-08-16
THE BUSINESS IN STAMPED EN-
vELoPEs.
An Important Branch of the Govern
ment Postal Service--The Numbers
Of Various Kinds Used, and the
Processes OF their Man
ufacture,
From the Springfield (Nass.) Republican.

States government has carried the manu-
facture of stamped envelopes, which are
every year more and more taking the
place of the unstamped envelope sold by
stationers The first issue Of stamped en-
vclopes was made by the post office de-
partment, June 27, 1853, and during the
following year the entire product of this
kind of envelopes was only 5000, 000.-l
The second year the product increased
2l,3S4,OOO, the third year to 23,45l, 725,
the fourth to 80, 764,050, and the yearly
product averaged within about 100000
of the latter number until 1867, when the
demand suddenly increased, and the pro-
duct for that year was GO, 0S6, $50. Since
that time the demand has steadily increas-
ed until the product in 1870 reached &c.
2S9, 800; 1871, lO4,675,276; 1872, 49,
925,750; 1873, l3l ,172,600; 1874, 1916, AIS
500, and during the past year, ending
June 80, l49, 766, 400 were produced
The production promises to be fully third
larger than the last figures, the present
year, which shows chat the demand is
steadily and rapidly growing. The ag-
grega.5 production OF stamped envelopes
during the 90 years since the first issue has
been 1879, 1865, 300.
The government has from the first given
the contract for manufacturing these en-
yelopes to the lowest responsible bidder,
who must furnish heavy bonds for the ac-
ceptable fulfllment of the contract Geo.
II. Reay, of New York, made them for
eight years previous to last September,
when the Plimptou Manufacturing COM
pany, Of Hartford, received the award for
q term of four years, the Morgan Envelope
company of Springfield, joining in its ex-
ecution. Their works are wonderfully
complete, and orders from the public
through the post Office department are now
filled more acceptably and with greater
promptness than ever before. A feature
adopted in 1865, and known as special
request" envelopes, are those which have
since come into such general use, bearing
the post Office address of parties, with re-
quest to return if unclaimed within a
given time. This card, always excluding
business employment, is printed on
all envelopes, excepting those for circulars
and newspaper wrappers, without addition
al charge. The first special request enve-
opes, which are sold in quantities Of 500
and upward, we're issued May 10, 1865,
aud the entire issue to June 80, 1875, was
373, AGA, 775,or $3.50 per cent. OF the whole
amount of stamped envelopes issued by
the government The issue Of envelopes
in 1853 included stamps of only two de-
nominations, 3 and 6 cents, red and green;
in 1858, came envelopes bearing green lC
cent stamps; in 1860, ! cent stamps; in
1861, II, 90 "a, and 40 cent stamps, and
in 1868, = cent stamps for circulars and
newspaper wrappers. Nearly every yeal
preceding 1870 brought out new stamps Of
various colors for various colored envelopes
and for special sizes of paper, but only thu
above denominations were issued unit
1870, when the following current series
were adopted bearing the profile busts
cent, blue, Franklin; 2 cents, brown, Jack
son. cents, green, Washington; 6 cents
red, Lincoln; cents, vermiiOn, Stanton
neutral tint purple, Clay; Is cents, orange
Webster; 24 cents, pure purple, Scott
80 cents, black, Hamiton 80 cents, car
mine, Commodore o. II. Perry. A cen
stamp, blue, with profile of Taylor, wa
issued on the first OF the present mouth
. while the 7, -, and "a cent stamps wer
at the same time discontinued.
Uncle Sam has an eye for business, an
evidently believes in quick sales an
small profits, as he has recently bee
cutting under" on prices, and stampe
envelopes. including special requests,
are now furnished at prices considerab
lower than plain unstamped envelope
For instance, the stationers' price for o
binary No. . letter envelopes, 81 by
inches, in half. thousand lots, is So as, an
the postofice departments price, 50 q
the stationers' price in lots Of one thousau
is 80 81, and the postofice department
81 60; full letter, commercial letter an
extra letter sizes, No. 3, 80, ly 81, No. 4
81 by 81, and No. 5, - by 6S, respectivel
are sold by stationers in half,thousar
lots at 50 SO, "a u, and 81 81, and by Il
postoffice department at 81 &c. SO, al
SO 30, aud the same proportion in lots
1000. The government prices are elaine
to be only Is per cent, advance on Il
prices paid the contractor, but it
cheaper for the former to sell its staml
or envelopes than through the postmaS
ers. Stamped envelopes, as well as 9th
postage stamps which are injured in
recting letter or newspaper, are redeem
able in stamps at the post office, fact
which the general public are ignoran
The various sizes of envelopes now used
the government are: No |, note size,
by 81 inches No ,, ordinary letter siz
81 by 81; No 3,tull letter size, ungummt
cial size, 81 by So; No 5, extra letter siz
gummed, for circulars, g by CO; No :, @
fetal size, 3 1916 by I !; Nos, extra q
fetal size, AZ by lOi; No ., newspap
wrappers. There are first, second, al
third qualities, and all the popular shade
and, with the beginning Of the preser
mouth, several neat new shades were a.
ded, including an elegant blue. The pu
lie is served directly through the postoff
department, the order, including Il
shades, size, and quality desired, as w
as the character Of the special request
being given TO the postmaster, who 10
wards it directly to the postofice depar
ment at Washington, from whence it
sent to the mandatory at Hartford; al
not over a week is generally required f
delivering the envelopes to the purchase
Fully one-half of the orders are for speci
request envelopes. The postmasters a
expected to keep on hand a good supp
Of plain stamped envelopes, but, of cours
all envelopes bearing printed matter mu
he obtained by direct order.
Every department Of the business
Hartford is thoroughly systemized, and 4
greatest care is exercised 10 insure accur
ey, all the work passing through the han
OF three sets of inspectors. Thirty-siX e
velOpe and 81 stamping machines aud
printing presses are employed, the STAN
ing machine patents being held by Il
contractors. There are also four autom
tic printing presses with daily capaci
for printing $4,000 envelopes. OF d
225 hands employed fully two-thirds a
girls. and about three tons of paper
- = - -. Al Al Il