Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1878-07-05
POSTAGE STAMPS,

A visit to the establishment in which
the postage stamps for the United States
are made was very interesting. It's in
the seven-story fire-proof building on
Prince street and Broadway, formerly
occupied by Ball, Black Il Co., the
jewellers. There are about eighty per-
sons at work making the stamps we put
on our letters-and it is doubtful if
there is to be found anywhere a buster
set of workers, or any who make things
fly at livelier rate. 1t is, from top to
bottom, very hive of industry, where
work is pushed as if for dear life. More
than half of these eighty are young
women; the rest men. | say young
women, for there appear to be no old
or middle-aged ones among them, and
thereby hangs tale.h | was assured
that for the manifold forms and proc
esses of manipulation through which
these sheets of postage stamps must 90,
it was found that not only do men fail
to come to time, in the necessary deli
cacy of touch and rapidity of work, but
even the women employed must be
young and smart. Not even a gross or
fat woman will do-and scores of ap-
plicants have to be refused for that rea-
son; they are too coarse and clumsy for
the marvellous dexterity and CELEBRITY of
touch and movement required. After
looking at these girls, and noting their
swift and silent work, | could well be-
lieYeit.
The daily orders are, themselves,
surprising. They come every day, from
the department at Washington, for l.
200 or 1900 postofiices. As 200 is the
least allowable order, and most of them
are much more, some notion may by
these facts be gained as to the amount
of work that is done in turning out
these stamps. The largest single order
ever received was for 10000, 900 of these
pictured stickcrs. All orders are exc
cuted Immediately.
Nobody who buys, at the postoffice,
sheet of stamps, even imagines the
number and variety of processes it has
undergone in the stamp-manufactory
As one part of the work, that sheet has
been counted no fewer than twenty-six
times. For every sheet has to be counted
(and the counting is proved by others),
beginning with its status as simple
white paper and so on, through differ
ent hands, to the printers, the gummers,
the perforators, 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 encouraged to declare any mis-
take they may make, so that the error
may be found and corrected, instead of
concealing it, But they seldom err;
they are marvels of correctness.
After the paper is "wet down." as
the printers say-every hundred sheets
being counted, and the number marked
by protecting tag-it is taken up TO
the printers. Each sheet is of the right
size for making 200 stamps of the or
dinary size. Curiously enough, none
of the gentlemen of whom l 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 being i'm active opera
ton. Each press has three persons i'm
attendance-one 10 Z" tend press" one
tolnk the plate, and one-the "printer''
to brush off all the ink (in a wonder
fully swift and dexterous way) from
the surface As soon as it has been put
on. The reason of this, which would
otherwise be piece OF self-stultihoa-