The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1877-05-24

slightly spotigy texture, we'll fitted to take
paste It. Ii known techiiiEa1lf . mid
dies, and is the f0tindati5n Tor two Gxter-
nal surfaces Of paper, white or colored As
the case may be. The primitive paste.
brush has long been discarded A clev-
erly- constructed machine pours out q
stream of paste on two rollers, uncer or
over which pass two sheets Of paper, each
of which BecYnes thoroughly, pustsd on
one side. These are then Quickly applied
to the surfaces OF the middle. The paste.
caldrons, In compartment by them
selves, have vigorous appetite for Hour.
alum and water, and pour forth volumes
of steam. To show what ss q bit of paste"
may become when multiplied by millions,
it will suffice to say that thirteen sacks of
-four per week are used in this one fac
toryl After the pasting, each sheet of
cardboard. large enough for one hundred
and twenty live railway.titkets; Is, with
others of the same kind, subjected to fat
pressure, rolling pressure and heat, until
the surface papers are firmly and smooth
~ attached to the middle; exposure to a
high temperature in heated chambers
thoroughly dries them. Cutting machines
sever the sheets into single tickets, the
well known railway ticket size, all pre-
ciseiy alike in dimensions.
A pile of about five hundred blank
tickets is placed in an upright tube or
hopper, with just room to sink down
readily. The bottom of the tube is open,
allowing the lowermost blank forest Upon
flat metal plate. A slider, with rapid
rgciprocatihg horizontal motion, strikes
the lowerniost blank dexterously aside to
spot where it can be printed oh the
back with those cautions, instructions
and references to bylaws which most
companies deem proper to communicate
to the public. Another sharp stroke
drives the blank further on, where the
printing and numbering of the front or
principal surface are effected. When the
blank is printed on both surfaces, it is
struck onward again, AID comes under
meath an exit or delivery tube, just the
same height and dimensions as the hop
per or feeding tube. Up this it is driven
by series of jerks, until a pile of (say)
i've hundred is finished. In travelling
horizontally from tube to tube, and ver-
tically up the delivery tube, each ticket
acts as kind of cardboard policeman,
saying to its predecessor: "Move on, if
you please" And they do move on, all
undergoing some process or other at each
stage of the movement. As the pile in
one tube lessons, SO does that in the other
increase in height, like the Two coldmns
of liquid in a syphon. The whole pile
can be removed from the delivery tube at
once by dexterous hand but woe betide
the luckless wight vino "makes pi" las
printers call the dropping and disorder
ing of types in composing and distribut-
ing); for if single ticket be disarranged,
extra trouble is given in the after check
ing and correction.
As to the various cclors displayed on
railway tickets, some depend on the use
of colored sheets of paper in the first i'll
stance; some on the production OF stripes
of color in wav bearing resemblance
to the making of colored stripes on earth.
enware or stoneware in the pottery dis
tricts; and some by process more nearly
resembling ordinary printing. One of
the companies adopts particular dag
onal red line on all tickets, distinguishing
them from other tickets which have to
pass through the railway clearing house.
The automatic action of the machine or
machines is very beautiful. For number
ing each ticket peculiarly-constructed
wheel is used, which changes its particu-
lar digit every time new blank is pre-
sented to it; and thus the consecutive
numbers are produced on series of
tickets with unerring accuracy. A tell
tale index and a tell-tale bell, both auto
matica1ly worked, give information as to
the number Of tickets printed, and the
readiness of the machine to take in more
food; but it is matter of practical de-
tail whether and when these tell tales
shall be deemed necessary. To give the
reader an idea of how nicely this mech
anism is adjusted, it refuses to work un-
less all the tickets are exactly of equal
size, nicely squared and in perfect order.
1t strikes one as being almost like thing
of life to see the machine detect ticket
from which piece has purposely been
torn off one end its language is virtual
ly: Thus far shalt thou go, and no
farther" for il prints as far as the de-
feciive ticket, and there stops.
As neither human fingers nor automatic
machines are absolutely infallible, errors
in numbering may occur in spite of all
precautions. These are detected in sin
gular way. All the tickets in one series
are made to pass through machine with
a velocity which the eye can scarcely fol
low. When stopped, the numbers are
tested by two little index plates or wheels;
if the same number is denoted on both
indexes, all is well : but if any error has
crept in, the index notifications differ,
and afford means for determining at what
part of the series the mishap has occurred.
A sheet of card board is certainly not a
ponderous substance; but it is surprising
how weighty the packages become when
large quantities have to be dealt with.
The tickets are tied up into small, com
pact rows (stringing and tying being pc
cuIiar), and then packed into cubical
masses, in tin-lined boxes or cases-so
firmly and closely pressed as to be rs dense
as mass of wood About fifty thousand
tickets weigh one and quarter hundred
weight The factory turns out two and
half millions of printed tickets railway,
steamboat, Tefreshment, etc. per week,
and ten millions Of smoothly prepared
but imprinted tickets; these numbers null
tiplied by the fifty-two weeks in year,
give total annual production of some
thing like six hundred and fifty millions,
weighing upward of sixteen thousand
hundred weight! If these tickets be taken
at two inches in length, and if they were
laid fiat, end to end, they would reach
But we leave our Junior readers to exer-
else their arithmetical skill in solving this
problem; merely limiting that it would re-
quire many voyages from England to
America, and back again, to cover dis
tance equal to the length Of this cardboard
ribbon. From such small beginnings do
great results epsue.