Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-07-25
POSTAL CARDS.
Ao,o and Where They Are Made.


York Sunday NeaOs says that the
American Prototype Company-to whom
the contract for making the postal cards
of the United States was awarded In
1977-carr1ed on business in New York
for two years but, to save the expense
and risk attending the transportation OF
paper from the mill at Holyoke, Mass,
the business was removed thither in the
spring of 1879, a new building being
erected for its accommodation. The
main portion of the building is divided
by partition through the middle. One
side is used by the contractors for manu-
featuring cards, and the other side by
the Special Agent of the Post Office and
his subordinates, in the transaction Of
Government business pertaining to max
ing up of olders, and forwarding cards
to the various postofices ordering them.
No business, Of nature, is trans
acted with more systematic precision
than is maintained in both departments
of the postal-card agency.
On entering the contractors side, the
first thing noticed is the large piles of
paper, which are delivered to the con-
tractors by the Parsons Paper Company
in loads of 5000 sheets each. The
works consume on the average about
three tons daily at present. The pro-
cess of manufacturing cards is neither
lengthy nor complicated, but it is at
once so novel and interesting that brief
description is well worth recital. The
sheets are about thirty by twenty-tw
inches in size, and are just fitted by the
plates from which the cards are printed,
each plate covering forty cards, four in
width and ten in length. The printing
is done on two Hoe super-royal presses
by skillful pressmen, and as each sheet
passes into the press the number of
cards is unerringly recorded by registers
attached to the presses, and which are
carefully locked every night to prevent
any tampering. The sheets are then
piled up and allowed to dry in order
that they may not be damaged by future
handling. Incident to the rapidity with
which the work is performed, now and
then sheet is misprinted, but this oc-
ours only rarely, the number Of cards
spoiled in this way being not over one
tenth of 1 per cent, OF one in ZOO on
the average.
After drying thoroughly, the sheets
are then passed through rotary sitter,
a machine fitted with circular knives,
which cuts them into strips of ten cards
each, and trims the edge of the outside
strip. The strips are then passed trans
versely through the rotary cross cutters,
the mechanism of which is similar to the
"slitters." The cross cutters divide the
strips into the single cards, which drop
into a rotary hopper containing ten COM
partments. AS soon as each compart-
ment has received twenty-f cards, the
hopper revolves and throws the cards out
upon table. A number of girls then
take them, and, after throwing aside all
damaged cards, bind the perfect ones
into packs of twenty-five each. Other
girls then take the packs, and after re-
counting them, put them in pasteboard
boxes containing twenty packs or 500
cards each. The boxes are made entire
ly of one piece of pasteboard, without
seam or paste, and after being filed are
weighed. Each box is supposed tGweigh
three pounds and two ounces. In the
rear Of the building is large frerproof
vault with a capacity of storing 25,OOo,-
600 cards. By the stipulation of the
contract the American Prototype Com
pany is required to keep at least 10, 0OO,-
600 in store all the time.
So rapidly has the popular demand
for postal cards increased that the works
have lately been run night and day, en-
pleying in all nearly fifty hands, and
producing nearly million cards per
day on an average. The Government
portion of the works is no less inter-
esting than the other. Here the bust
ness is carried ON in a manner similar to
that in general postoffices in large cities.
Every postofice in the country requiring
postal cards sends in its order, together
with requisition for other supplies, to
the office of the Third Assistant Post
master General at Washington. There
the orders are separated, and all the or
ders for postal cards are made up in one
general order to the agency at Holyoke,
the names of ordering postoAices being
put down alphabetically. An order is sent
every day, and often includes the orders
of several hundred postoffices, and re-
curing all the way from few hundred
thousand to two, three, and even four
million cards to fill it. During the first
month in each quarter the orders aver
age much larger than at other times, for,
as rule, large number of Offices order
supplies in those months to last for the
<,,,o,,Ior &c {1,e 41o,o