The Penn's Grove record., 1882-08-05

= elrCtIOty Ing departments.
AZ may be of interest to those of your
readers who have never seen the meth
cd of electrotyping to hear some of the
process. Beeswax impressions of the
matter in type are placed in a tank al
~ternately between sheets of copper. In
this tank are certain acids, and connec
ted with it is an electric battery.
Through the action of the electricity
and the acids a thin coating of copper
is formed upon the beeswax. This coat
ing is then removed in entirely and be-
ing back by some harder metal the re-
suit is a copper plate of the matter to
be- printed.
On the third floor is the other part Of
the warehouse, and the binding depart
ment. In the latter occupation tie
employees are mostly females, and their
deft fingers become very expert in guild
ing the thread and wire. 1t is refresh
ing to see the almost uniformly pretty
faces Bending over their work, and it is
not surprising that your correspondent
fingered in this department rather long
er than was strinly necessary. The
wire, while it secures much more ex'
petition than the thread and is entirely
servicsable for light work, does no:
give satisfaction when used in binding
large books that are subject to much
handling. The clamped ends Of the
wire are not firm enough to stand the
strain upon them and become straight
tened out, thus allowing whole sections
to fall out. Several OF the departments
have returned books, in which the wine
has been used, to be rebound. But i'll
binding pamphlets and small books,
such rs tue Congressional Record and
the Postal Guide, it has been used with
much success.
The history of The Government Print
ing Office is a ye-ie6 @rd interesting
he. Previous to 1919 all Government
printing was done by contract, being
let to the lowest bidder. In that year
Congress by joint resolution decided
each House should elect its own print
er, and in accordance with this resolu-
ton Gales g. Seaton, subsequently, the
publishers of the National I~ntelligencer,
of this city, were elected printers. This
plan worked smoothly until 1916. whon
Congress from some cause becoming
dissatisfied with it returned to the orig
inal method, ordering that all printing
should be performed by contract as be-
fore. The experiment proved an ex-
pensive failure, and in 1852 an Act was
passed creating the office Of Superil-
tendent of Public Printing. This func
tionary was to receive a salary of 81
500 per aanum, and was to exercise a
supervision overthe public printer for
each House. who should be elected as
formerly. The first superintendent ap-
pointed under this act was John I.
Towers, who was afterwards mayor of
Washington.
The work has become thoroughly
systematizsd and there is 10 question
that the establishment is a great means
Of economy to the Government. The
expense of printing any work excepting
theAgricultural reports whichare quite
expensive owing to the great number
of copies issued, now rarely exceeds
$40, 900. This compares very favorably
with the showing of former times
when some large sums were expended.
For instance; Volumes / and 8 of the
Report of Commodore Perry's Naval
Expedition TO Japan, cost sl40,S5 80;
the Report of Mexican Boundary Sur
veyes, 9 volumes with maps, Sl5!. 1885,
IS; aud the Report of Pacific Railroad
Surveys, which consisted of II vol
umes, the enormous sum of SS63, 5l3.
SoGe very rapid work has been done