The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1878-07-11
POSTAGE STAMPS.
How They are Made.

manufacturing postage stamps. Our
readers will find 1t worthy of perusal:
A visit to the establishment in which
the hostage stampsfor the United States
are made was very interesting. There
are about eighty persons at work max.
ing the stamps we put on our letters;
and it is doubtful if there is to be found
anywhere buster set of workers, or any
who make things fly at q ivelier rate.
More than half of these eighty are young
women; the rest men. | say young
women, for there appears to be no old or
middle-aged ones among them; and
"thereby hangs tale" I was assured
that for the manifold forms and process
es of manipulation, through which these
sheets of postage stamps must go, he
has found that not only do men fail to
come to time, in the necessary delicacy
of touch and rapidity OF work, but even
the women employed must beyoung and
smart Not even a gross or fat woman
will do; they are too coarse and clumsy
for the marvellous dexterity and celebrity
of touch and movement required. AZ
ter looking at these girls and noting
their swift and silent work, [ could well
believe it.
Nobody who buys at the postoffice
sheet of stamps even imagines the num-
Der and variety OF processes it has un-
dergone in the stamp mandatory. AS
one part of the work, the sheet has been
counted no fewer than twenty-six times,
For every sheet has to be counted (and
the counting is proved by others), be-
ginning with it's status as simple white pa
per and so on, through different hands,
to the printers, the gummers, the per-
forators, and various others, all of whom
must account for the exact number of
sheets they handle, SO that there can be
no mistake or loss. The girls are en-
couraged to declare any mistake they
may make, so that the error may be
found and corrected instead of conceal
ing it. But they seldom err; they are
marvels of correctness.
After the paper is "wet down." as the
printers say-every hundred sheets be-
ing counted, and the number marked by
projecting tag-it is taken up to the
printers Each sheet is of the right size
for making 200 stamps of the ordinary
size Curiously enough, none of the
gentlemen of whom I inquired seemed
to know what paper mill made the paper,
but it is made especially for the purpose.
The printing-room is crowded with the
hand-presses used for printing the
stamps; no fewer than eleven presses be-
ing in active operation. Each press has
three persons in attendance-one to
" tend press" one to ink the plate, and
one-the "printer TO brush off all the
ink Gin wonderfully swift and dexter
GUS Way, from the surface as soon as it
has been put on. The reason of this,
which would otherwise be piece of
disqualification, is that the stamps are
counter-sunk," or cut in, and the ink
is not wanted above them on the plane
surface. It would cost too much, and
take too long, to prepare steel-engraved
dies for every stamp; so cast-hardened
steel die is made, down at the Continen-
tai Bank-Note Company's, all carefully
engraved and cut away to perfection,
and then steel plate softened for the
purpose is by machinery rolled over the
die, which leaves it's impress every time,
until the entire plate is filled with them;
then the plate is hardened and ready for
use-one for every printing press in the
room. These are hand presses, and the
cylinder that makes the impression is
merely turned by single wbirl of the
wheel, obtained by the leverage afford
ed by the projecting spokes or handles. |
It is all done in surprisingly quick I
way, and there is no "lost motion" of |
wheel. cylinder. or elbows.
The printers are paid by the hundred.
Precisely how much they earn [ couldn't |
find out, but it ought to be good wages,
for they "work like beavers" There
is no idling or play in that room-nor
anywhere else in this busy establish
ment. The blank paper, all numbered,
is charged to the printers to whom it is
delivered, and the plates are also num-
bered and charged to them. When not
in actual use the plates are kept care
fully locked up in the safe-a little room
in itself.
Each of these eleven presses turns out
1900 sheets a day, or 1900 week.
Each sheet contains 200, and, as they
are delivered to Postmasters only in
sheets of 100, it follows that each sheet
Ahuou pO CuU 1ASuO UuIOuSu buo mIuouo. |
This is done by hand. A girl with a
long pair of shears cuts them as &C
curately as ruled line, showing what a
good eye and rapid hand can do. There
is no room in the crowded sheet for any
error--and the girls make mono. One
girl, whom I watched for while, cuts
fifty sheets minute-11, 900 day !! It
is silent cut, cut, cut, from morning
till night, working as if her life depend
ed upon it. She sits at her work. The
girls are all busy at variety of pro-
cesses in the preparation of the stamps,
all of which require delicacy of touch as
well as swiftness, and their wages aver
age So week, or little over.
From the printing room and drying
room (the latter an insuferably hot
place where the sheets are placed in
frames on drying racks) they go to the
cumming room-which is also drying
room, but not hottie drying being
aided by revolving fans affixed to shaft,
which send their influence through lofty