The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1882-08-05
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.



WASHINGTON. d. c., July 81, 1882.
In the northern part of Washing
ton stands great, square, yellow
building, looming up above its hum
bic neighbors like a giant among
pigmies. Iii this building, covering
acres Of ground, is located the Coy
eminent Printing Office, and the i'm
mense, solid appearance it presents
we'll conveys some idea of the extent
of the work carried on by the estab-
lishment. 1t is probably the largest
printing office in the world. Here
are printed all Congressional bills,
speeches and reports; all the reports
of heads of departments and bureaus.
and various other reports of officers
connected with the Government.
Here also is done all the binding for
Congress and the departments. and
many jobs at regular rates for private
parties, The number of persons who
find employment in this vast work is
now about 9, 300, and the amount of
printed matter turned out by this
enormous establishment is estimated
at tons, the Agricultural and Patent
Office reports alone making immense
stacks.
On the first floor are the presses
part of the paper warehouse; the
machine and carpenter shops, and a
vault used as a stOre.house for stereO-
type plates. The presses are all large
and of the latest improved patterns.
In the vault. which is fire-pro0f, are
stored away stereotype plates to the
value of, the install alone, S37 900.
The Congressional Record is stereo-
! type and there are between 5000 and
| 80, 900 plates of it. In addition there
are more than 100000 other plates,
about $4,000 of which are quartOs. On
the second floor are the offices of the
establishment /; the document room,
where all public documents are set in
type the proof room, where an ex-
pert corps of pro0f-readers are con-
stantly employed and the stereotype
ing and electrotyping departments.
1t may be of interest to those of your
readers who have never seen the
method of electrotypingto hear some
thing of the process. Beeswax inn
pressions of the matter in type are
placed in tank alternately between
sheets of copper. In this tank are
certain acids, and connected with it
is an electric battery. Through the
action of the electricity and the acids
a thin coating of copper is formed
upon the peeswax. This coating is
then removed entirely and being
backed 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
department.. In the latter occupa-
ton the employees are mostly females,
and their def fingers become very
expert in guiding the thread and
wire. 1t is refreshing to see the al
most uniformly pretty faces bending
over their work, and it is not sur
prising that your correspondent lin
gered in this department rather
longer than was strictly necessary.
The wire, while it secures much more
expedition than the thread and is en-
tirely serviceable for light work, does
not 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 be-
come Strengthened out, thus allowing
whole sections to fall out. Severa! of
the departments have returned books,
In which the wire has been used, to
be rebound. But in binding PAM
phlets and small books, such as the
Congressional Record and the Postal
Guide, it has been used with much
success.
The history of the Government
Printing Office is varied and in