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

| ndIueneu sJe6l ulc Is maze, uOWn dJ
the Continental Bank Note Company's,
all carefully engraved and cut away to
perfection, and then steel plate soft
ened for the purpose is by machinery
rolled over the die, which leaves its inn
press every time, until the entire plate
is filled with them; then the plate is
hardened and is ready for use-one for
every printing press in the room.
| These are hand presses, and the cylin-
der that makes the impression is merely
turned by a single whirl of the wheel,
obtained by the leverage afforded by
the projecting spokes or handles. 1t is
all done in a surprisingly quick way;
and there is no "lost motion" of wheel,
cylinder or elbows.
The ink varies according to the kind
of stamp. Some of the presses are
printing the red two-cent stamps, some
the three-cent green ones, and others
different colors. Two-thirds of all the
stamps, says the superintendent, are
the three-cent green ones. The "ink,"
queer substance in bulk, and queerer
still when seen on the ink table, and
roller, is made by the Note Company,
and its secret is theirs. All they know
have " laundry blue" in them, and that
all kinds are made with reference to
canceling-to the effect of the dauby
canceling stamp used in the post-oliice.
For the orange-toned ninety-cent stamps
(these are the highest denominations l
saw, and also for one of the vermillion
stamps a peg or two below that, the
materials are imported from Europe,
and mixed in New York. All the others
are wholly made here. The different
colored inks are apparently about the
| consistency of some newspaper ink, but
not by any means so sticky. The
printer who brushes off the plate
the moment before it goes into the
press does it all in six swift motions
three with a sort of cloth, and three to
(conclude) with his bare hand. The
operation, for deftness and celebrity, is
| like one of Heller's, the magician.
| The ink is rolled over the plate with a
roller made of Canton flannel.
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 day, or 1920 a week.
Each sheet contains 200, and, as they
are delivered to Postmasters only in
sheets of 100. it follows that each sheet
must be cut right through the middle.
This is done by hand. A girl with a
long pair of shears cuts them as ac-
curately as a 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 none.
One girl, whom l watched for while,
cuts fifty sheets a minute-11, 200 dav!
1t is silent cut, cut, cut, from morn
ing till night, working as if her life de-
pended upon it. She sits at her work.
The girls are all busy at variety of
processes in the preparation of the
stamps, all of which require delicacy
of touch as well as swiftness, and their
wages average eight dollars week, or
little over.
From the printing-room and the dry
| ing-room (the latter an insufferably hot
place where the sheets are placed in
frames on drying-racks) they go to the
gumming-room-which is also dry
ing-room, but not hot-the drying be-
ing aided by revolving fans affixed to a
shaft, which send their influence through
lofty piles of the gummed sheets in
frames. The gum used is not gum arabic
that would in drying cause the sheets
to curl and crack-but is simply kind
of potato starch. 1t is made, believe,
in Providence. A girl swiftly adjusts
the edges of heap of printed sheets so
as to slide them all into place while she
deity daubs them at single stroke
with the mucilaginous substance, which
she applies with single motion of a
wide brush. This is the substance you
"lick to make it stick' on the letter
you drop in the postoflice. The sheets
are dried in wooden frames.
After the cumming and drying, the
stamps, in sheets, are tlattened out and
made smooth by being subjected to the
persuasive power of hydraulic press,
the force being 450 tons. They are put
in thin boards, which divide the several
packages. And, after they come out,
they are taken out and counted again
by girls seated at tables, who also
swiftly adjust them in even-edged heaps
while counting. Let one of these dam
sells make mistake, even of single
sheet, and she necessarily discovers it
on the final footings and adjustments.
Then there is careful going over of
all these weary piles-thousands of
sheets-till that lost sheep is found. If
he doesn't turn up, then piles are turned
around, and gone through with from
the edge on the side, not the opposite
edge-and 10! the delinquent is proba-
bly, found to have got turned under,
and so did not report at muster-foT
the count is done at the edges.
To show how careful they are, note
this fact. There was a count, last sum-
mer, of 1876, 900, 900 of stamps, on sud-
den and unexpected visit by Govern
ment experts from Washington, who
went through the piles in the safe. 1t
was count of long accumulation,
and it was conducted and tested by the
figures on the Government books at
Washington. Yet out of these 1885,
100000 the only discrepancy found was
851 stamps, valued at 1922; the aggre-
gate laundering of four gears of this
busy work, involving so many millions
of stamps and dollars. Once the girls
counted steadily for two days to find a
single missing sheet.
Everybody, probably, has noticed, in
" sticking on postage stamp, that
the edges are not even, but serrated-
escalloped-very much like the edges
of newspaper that has been printed
on Bullock press This sawlike edge,
as anyone can see in buying a sheet OF
stamps, is due to the lines of closely
connected perforations, or little holes