The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1878-07-12
POSTAGE STAMPS.
80 ,ETTU lid
How They are Made.

nv" ahey eFe uoue.
A New York correspondent of q
Hartford Times gives the following We
interesting description of the manner
manufacturing postage stamps. o,
readers will find 1t worthy of perusal !:
visit to the esta blishment in whic
the postage stampsfor the United Stat,
are made was very interesting. Thel
are about eighty persons at work NAL
ing the stamps we put on our letter.
and it is doubtful If there is to be folln
anywhere buster set OF workers, or an
who make things fly at livelier rate
More than half of these eighty are youn
women; the rest men. l say youn
women, for there appears to be no old O
middle-aged ones among them: an,
thereby hangs tale" was assured
that for the manifold forms and process
es OF manipulation, through which these
sheets of postage stamps must 90, 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 be young and
smart. Not even gross or fat woman
Will do; they are too coarse and clumsy
Tor 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 a
sheet of stamps even imagines the mum.
Der and variety OF processes it has un-
dergone in the stamp manufactory. 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 GOnntIpO a r.rnra1 hxy oh L
ginning with its 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 thew
may make, so that the error NAV 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
Tor making 200 stamps of the ordinary {
size. Curiously enough, none of the {
gentlemen of whom l inquired seemed {
to know what paper-mill made the paper. q
put 1T Is made especially for the purpose G
The printiugroom is crowded with the O
hand-presses used for printing the O
stamps; no fewer than eleven presses be- a
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 g,
Ink Tin wonderfully swift and dexter n,
GUS way, from the surface as soon as il W
has been put on. The reason of this. la
winch would otherwise be a piece of bt
DISQUALIFICATION. is that the stamps are ia
y counter-sunk, or cut in, and the ink ar
8 not wanted above them on the plane r,
surface. 1t would cost TOO much. and wi
axe too long, to prepare steel-engraved 10
ICES for every stamp; so cast-hardened 81,
teel die is made, down at the Continen. wa
al Bank-Note Company's, all carefully III
ngraved and cut away to perfection. (of
nd then steel plate softened for the ca,
urpose is by machinery rolled over the On
lie, which leaves its impress every time. he
ntil the entire plate is filled with them: eve
len the plate is hardened and ready for no,
'e-one for every printing press in the we,
'om. These are hand presses, and the anG
hinder that makes the impression is so /,
baoi oS suaneu py single wblrl OF the ryil
10, e Ho'aineu uy Tue leverage Afford tacl
by the projecting spokes or handles. con
is all done in a surprisingly quick 500
~, ~, "nI 1,: .nere Is no lost motion" of Ems
~ oynuei' VI Elbows. The
Inc printers are paid by the hundred TO
- now mucn they earn couldn't told
I'd out, but it ought to be good wages. IF H
they "work like beavers" There Tb;
no ldllng or play in that room-nor stor
ywhere else in this busy establish. was
snt. The blank paper, all numbered. bea,
charged to the printers to whom it is h,
llvered, and the plates are also num- Tho,
red and charged to them. When not naor
actual use the plates are kept care Mo-
ly locked up in the safe-a little room rone
Itself. -0'-i rope
Each OF these eleven presses turns ont of II
w sheets day, or 1900 a week. time
daI;. 9ouCains 1oo, and, as they only
'ets OF 100, it follows that each sheet T 90
st be cut right through the middle. O'D
is is done by hand. A girl with
g pair of shears cuts them "a AZ. IT.,
ately as ruled line, showing what n IL
ID eye and rapid hand can do. There ~,
10 room IN the crowded sheet for anv W., VIZ
the girls make none. One s .ial
, whom 1 watched for a while. cuts h hun,'
7 sheets minute-11, 900 dayl II ; noiu
silent cut, cut, cut, from morning a nmpo
night, working as if her life depend. Om =
upon it. She sits at her work. The t staue
are all busy at variety of pro- sneI T
YES in the preparation of the stamps IT, are -
Of which require delicacy of touch as a,o'
az q waek or a I;t.,a o ""See aver aged
rom tbe ny;nt;no - the m
n (tbe iatter o, ~ enu urying music
q where the sheets are placed in LII anns ~
he's on drying racks) they go to the Ite ~
inning room-which is also a driving 'e~es
a, but not hottie drying being
d by revolving fans affixed to shaft The
"a seno tnelr influence through lofty eight
; OF the gummed sheets in frames and I
gum used is not gum arabic-that Cover
Id in drying cause the sheets To curl mand
crack-but is simply kind of potato The ,
IN. A girl swiftly adiusts tba adc,o. | oftar /