Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1889-11-28

pattern is satisfactory it is traced on
steel, and is transferred to the printers
plate by a process similar to that which
transfers the engraving. The number
ing or lettering is put on by the en-
graver after the pattern is traced. The
engraving is not the work of moment.
Notice the head of Martha Washington
on dollar note. To make this alone it
takes an engraver from six weeks to two
months, working eight hours a day.
When the plates are ready for the
printer they are put in the plate-vault,
each one in a small compartment by
itself, and as carefully guarded as if
they were gold. Then, as they are
wanted, they are issued to the printers,
each printer returning his plate to the
keeper when his days work is done.
Every ounce of ink used in this
bureau is mixed right on the premises,
this again to prevent counterfeiting
The Government has secret formula,
there are barrels and barrels of oil and
coloring matter, and great hoppers
where these are mixed, and in the ink
room proper they have the very latest
fads, and are replacing the old-fashioned
hopper mills by the improved rollers.
Every kind of work has its special ink,
and there are dozens of shining tin
pals standing in rows, filled with ink
and marked SILVER s'one-half barrel
her," fifty CIGARS etc., indicating the
class of notes or stamps each is intended
for. This is the finest ink used in this
country, and is no small item in the ex-
penSe account.
Now we can go up to the top floor by
the heavy, creaking elevator, and there
we find the wetting room. This is where
the paper is dampened previous to print
ing. Wet cloths, we'll pressed out, are
put between every twenty sheets of pa
per; the paper is stacked, well covered,
weights put on top, and it is left so over
night. At one end of this room is
great tank with running water, where
the cloths are thrown to soak after they
are removed from the paper. The blank
paper is dampened before it goes to the
printer. He prints one side and before
it has the other side printed it must go
through the dampening process again,
and for every impression it receives it
undergoes previous wetting. The
number of sheets is counted and record
ed when it goes into this room and
again before it is issued to the printers
assistant.
In the plate-printing division there are
$50 hand presses, and at each press there
is a printer and his assistant. Since the
LIST of July all the steam-presses have
been taken out, and the plate-printing
is done entirely by hand-presses. When
the plate-printer and his assistant ar
rive in the morning the printer goes to
little cage at one end of the room and
draws his plate, his ink, whitening, and
even the rags he uses for wiping the
plate. For these he gives check for
all the world like trunk-check, and
until he returns the plate in the even
ing, when his work is done, 10 can not
get the check, and until he gets the
check neither he OR his assistant can
get permit to leave the building.
When he has drawn the plate his assist
ant goes to a similar cage at the en-
trance of the wetting-room and draws
the paper, for which she gives a receipt,
certifying to the counting of the paper.
This plate-printing is dirty and CORE
spondingly picturesque work. The
printer, generally in undershirt and
trousers, with his sleeves rolled up to
his shoulders and his hands and arms
covered with ink, not little of which
y
over gas-stove, then inks
1t, wipes it with cloth, and rubbing his
hand over a big lump of whitening, he
polishes it with his hand. Then it is
puts on the press. His girl assistant,
generally pretty, and sometimes be-
with paper cap on her head,
put the paper in place, he turns the big
wheel, and she removes the sheet, on
r, I oI, w bo uni
are always printed. Each press is pro-
vided with an automatic register that
registers the number of sheets printed,
and this number must tally with the
of blank sheets drawn and also
with the number of printed sheets sent
down to the examining-room to be
Every two hundred sheets are
collected from the printer and sent to be
The initials of the printer are
on the plate he uses, and of course on
every sheet he prints. and even if
sheet is spoiled in printing he is obliged
to send it in.
When one side of sheet is printed it
goes to- the counting-room and again
through the wetting-room before it re-
ceives it's second impression.
The only surface printing that is done
on money is on the National bank-notes.
On these the charter number is printed
by Hoe press, which also has a reg
lister, and if number is printed on a
piece of plain paper it has to be turned
over with the money to make things
tally.
As these sheets are taken from the
press, pieces of brown paper are put be-
tween them to keep them from blurring.
In the counting and examining-room
these sheets are carefully removed and
counted and examined to see that no
money is between them. The money is
counted and examined to SEE that every
sheet is perfect, by women who work
with the swiftness that only comes after
long practice. Some of the fast counters
can handle 100000 sheets a day, and
when they count and examine it is not
unusual for them to handle 40, 900. All
errors are reported by the counters and
entered in books. These clerks meet in
the cOmmittee-room in the afternoon,
each with an account of the work, and
if these accounts vary, all the workers
stay until the three statements are
verified. This rule is as strictly en-
forced if a single cigar-stamp is missing
as if $50, 900 note is missing. All the
defective sheets found in the work are