The Newtown bee., 1881-01-12
The Printing of Railroad Tickets.

There are few industries of such mag nitude of which so little is known as the manufacture of these insignificant-look- ing paste boards which you pay so roundly for before taking ride in rail. road train or on steamboat. In point of extent the business is not much now below that of the printing of the cur rency of the realm, or the production of the various stamps of the general gov are necessary in an establishment where $5 and Sl0 bills are turned out and where millions Of dollars worth of rail- road tickets are printed every day. Both demand the employment of men of wide experience in their calling, and of the very highest standards of intellect and integrity, and, above these, the utmost vigilance is required to guard against possible temptation to appropriate for an improper purpose even single one Of the many millions of tickets which are handled by the various employees. Until within the last few years the printing of sections of the country, each road pat ronizing establishments in their respec- tive vicinities or conveniently near their different headquarters. The Western roads, for instance, would have their work done in Chicago, the New Eng land roads in Boston, Springfield and New York, and the roads on the Pacific slope in San Francisco. As the railroad business of the country advanced and became perfect in organization, the sys- tenn of one road issuing tickets of the coupon form over an indefinite mum Der of other roads became established, and thus not only more tickets were required, but there was at once demand for their speedy and uniform printing
 About the first to observe this new source of business and wealth was an Englishman named George Bailey, who is now recognized by his followers as the pioneer railroad-ticket printer of the country. He commenced the business on an extensive scale in Buffalo in about 1860, and a few years since retired with an ample fortune. By making the busi- ness a speciality he soon secured the patronage of nearly every railroad in this section of the United Stat s. He had machinery and presses built ex- clusively for this particular line of work, and, of course, revolutionized the whole business much to the disgust and financial loss of hundreds ot other printers in distant sections.
 But the business was too growing and promising to be long confined to a single section, and, through the genius and perseverance of an indomitable Yankee, nearly one-half of the railroad-ticket business of the company has been se- cured to Boston. Over 100 railroads are supplied with their tickets from Boston. The number of passengers which any given road may carry during Q year does not by any means indi- cate the number of tickets which that road consumes. Forms are often renewed and old issues of thousands and thousands of tickets destroyed without being used. Every ticket office, whether large or small, has to keep on hand far greater number of tickets than there is likely to be any call for. Probably fifty tickets are printed against every one that is sold. Thus, for instance, if road like the Boston and Albany carried l0,000, ,000 D assengers in 8 year, basis of 800, 100000 tickets would be required to keep all their offices supplied.
 As before intimated, the presses and machinery required are very complicated and expensive. Ordinary printing paraphernalia will not answer, for. be- side printing the usual face of the ticket, every one has to be numbered and counted. This is all done automatically by single impression, and common To- Cdl tichets aIe tHtiS luIneo out stt d Ilte of not less than 25, ,0Oe per hour, and coupon tickets at a speed of about 3, 500 per hour. The local tickets, after they have come from the press, are again counted by an ingeniously-contrived machine, which never makes mistake, and tbe coupon issues are counted by girls. All this having been done, the tickets are divided into packages of 100 each, and when delivered to the roads a receipt for the exact number is re- quired. Many roads from distance telegraph their orders in the morning, and in the afternoon 500,OGO tickets are shipped in response. During the excur- sion season the establishment is often kept running day ana night. .-BostoS HeTn1G