The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1877-02-16
cANczLLINe POSTAGE syAxps.
Saafe Devices Which the aassaMea Department
has Tried.

Every year in something over 30, 600 Off
COS the Posteface Department cancels /,
oe0, O0o, 600 postal stamps Of one sort and
another. 1t vas really little more than
this last year., ,o49, 797, ,5O7-but few
thousand more or less makes small differ
enee. The thousand million give work
enough. One-third the stamped envelopes
and the postal cards cancel themselves, in
sense. No one can use them twice. The
stamps nobody has yet been able to
cancel fairly and completely, and within
the past month the department closed two
years of experiment no wiser than it began.
No enc has got past the pad, the stamp and
printers ink with which the department.
began thirty years ago and which it uses
stsll. Down in one corner of the postoffcs
building there is room full OF some 400 or
500 fruitless inventions. A new ink is gen.
orally the stronghold of canceling genius,
and to the fat inks-printer sand metallic
lnks-writing fluid -- the three principal
acids, caustic potash and drug shop of
other chemicals have been added by genius
at work on letter stamp. There is sui
nhuric acid there from Cincinnati, warrant
ed to cancel stamp, and which eats hole
through the envelope into the bargain.
There is one Of caustic potash. backed by
distinguished chemist, which blisters
mans fingers at touch and has its effects
on the glass bottle which holds it. Nitric
acid is at the bottom of another ink, and
fills the air with fumes familiar to labo-
ratories. ALI these inks do too:much. Most
Of them do too little. Your average inven-
tor never tests his invention. A shelf-ful
of inks-Warranted to stand acids--have
been washed clean and dry from cancelled
stamps with ordinary soap at the wash
stand in the corner. One such ink man
brought precious bottle of from St. Louis.
Was doubtful about trusting the bottle out
of sight, for fear of losing his secret" !"
saw some stamps cancelled with it in his
sight by Mr. Razen, in charge, and saw
the stamps washed clean ten minutes after
with soap and water. Of the whole bottled
array of inks not one has stood the acids
and the alkalis of the Patent Office chem
ist. Last on the list is his ink Smith
sonian chemist settled him, and the depart
ment still uses printers INK of the best
quality. No one improves on that.
There are other ways to cancel stamps
by genuine cancella. They have all been
invented-a good aany separate times
People in small Offices have invented hooks
to harrow the surface of the stamp. That
takes too much time. In large Office
single motion from pad to letter must dis
pose of stamp and post-mark. Men with
vague idea of this have put together an
elastic stamp which jabs stamp full of
holes A littls steam and q fat-iron
smooths that. And there is one ingenious
contrivance which brings disk down with
a half turn at the stamping slanting slot
does the work and rips half the features off
u. w. or Franklin. Somewhere along the
ten-thousandth letter this dulls and takes a
blow like Q sledge-hammer to do its work.
The New York office cancels 200, 900, 900
stamps year and the New York clerk
takes more kindly to the firm, light tap of
a wooden stamp. No invention has dis
placed that any more than the ink.
So the department has given over the at
tempt to cancel. Get three cents for good
many stamps, and carries six or nine cents |
mail under the stamp. 1t is not a profita-
BILE operation. "Do they have this bother
in England ?'' asked. "Oh, no; they
black their stamps up so thoroughly"
g Why can't we?'' "We1l, our postmast-
ers are not SO careful, and in England they
make row with man if stamp is not |
cancelled. We can't do that. |
The Department doesn't have enough cou-
troll, and can't get at 2 man SO sharply"
s' Then this whole loss is simply question
of civil service, efficient or n OF ?" swell |
yes: about that" IN. T. World. 4