Wichita eagle., 1889-11-29
FROM RAGS TO CARDS,

This little train Of cars carries away daily
from the works two car loads of printed
postal cards. all of which are brought 10 his
city and thence distributed, according to hle
destination marked upon them, all over tn q
country, in every postofice over which I'm.
Gle Sam has jurisdiction. To load car re-
quires between 1000, coo and 5000, 600 of the
little cards, according to how they are pack
ed. Three million cards make large load,
as box containing $4,000 cards weighs 1872
pounds. A thousand cards weigh about 81
pounds, or, to be more exact, 900 900 cards
weigh 5,225 pounds.
Climbing up the hill to the largest building
one can easily follow the process by which
postal cards are made. In back room of
the building can be seen dozen girls whose
sole duty is to sort the rags that come in
from the collectors The girls cut off all
buttons and buckles on discarded garments
and sort the rags into piles according to
quality. The sorted rags are put into huge
chopping machines, which cut them into
small pieces. 1t then whiffs them into dust
machine, where they are shaken and cleaned.
From this point they pass through success
sion of baths in chloride of lime and various
other bleaching and cleansing chemicals,
with occasional visits TO watts and trips
through rollers with sharp knives on them
After passing through the different pro-
cesses the rugs come out IN fine white pulp
as thin as -four paste. This is shaken over
wire to get the water ont, and is then put
through a score or more of rollers and glue
bath, after which it Is rolled ont into postal
card paper. At the end Of the long rolls that
have been squeezing the paper down and put
ting the gloss on it, are the knives used for
cutting, and the long sheet passing through
it is either cut into sheets four postal cards
wide to be put into the huge automatic presses
or into sheets 2lx3015 inches. In the big room
of the postal card mill are about dozen men
and two dozen woman, four large presses,
four cutters and one extra large cutter. The
sheets are taken to the press, where they are
given the feeders, who on the Campbell
presses feed forty-one sheets a minute or
1,760 postal cards. The cards are printed
from steel plates 50 hard that a file could not
make an impression on them zach one is
printed from separate plate, ard eighty
plates are locked in the bed of the press Ali
the plates are sent from Washington, and one
set of plates in continual use lasts about two
years. The feeders are women Of experience,
and they receive forty and half cents
for feeding 100, 900 cards. and can feed about
1000 day.
The sheets are next taken to the cutters,
from which they are turned out In single
cards. Three girls take the cards of each
feeder. One counts twenty-five in each pack
age, aad the other two put en- the paper
binders. After they leave this room they are
put mp in packages, counted out In packages
OF twenty and put into tine pasteboard boxes
which by contract mast be muslin bound
Five girls put the muslin binding on the
boxes, receiving for the work fifteen cents
per 100 boxes The boxes when flled are put |
INTO cases ready for shipment. No order for
.esS than 800 cards is filed. Orders for le,- |
900 or more are packed in wooden cases, the |
largest single case holding o. 600 cards.
4 new machine has recently been put in TO |
work on postal cards that will increase the |
rate Of printing them and decrease the mum |
Der of employees. Two of the machines are |
now in operation They print from continu- |
oos rolls at the rate OF 800 per minute A |
sat of knives cuts them of and they drop into |
little cells; set of steel fingers turn the |
package over. After each TWENTY-FIVE cards |
have dropped into cell, the fingers Irvine a |
hand about the package and carry it back 10 |
the packing room, where the girls put them |
INTO bozes.-Albany IN " Cor St. Louis |
Glohe-n e-nncrst