Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1891-06-04
EXPENSIVE PATTERNS,
COLLECTIONS THAT MANUFACTURE
-i- ING CONCERNS HOARD.

Why the First Production Of Machine
ora Piece Oh Ornamental Ironwork Costs
Many Times More Than Subsequent Du-
plicatss-Governmsnt Plates.
Fortunes are invested in models and
patterns used in various branches of
manufactures The pattern room of any
of the large iron molders or machine
shops that have been long in operation
presents an array of woodwork that has
cost good deal of money. Take, for in
stance, the iron front of building. The
various columns, panels, cornices, sills
and ornaments have al been made in
wood, which is used to mold the sand in
which the iron is cast.
Generally the cost of the patterns is
paid for on the first order. Subsequent
orders for castings of the same patterns
are executed more cheaply because the
patterns are ready made. Sometimes the
foundry owns the patterns and supplies
duplicates to all customers, but in many
cases owners of buildings prefer to own
their own patterns, so that no other
building may look like theirs.
The preservation and duplication Of
patterns is feature and source of great
profit in many manufacturing opera
tions 1t is a characteristic of all kinds
of printing. The type founder procures
matrices of various fonts Of type at great
cost, but having once secured his mold
he can go on producing any number of
duplicates at trifing cost, The first cost
of the mold is the main cost, compared
with which the cost of metal and casting
is trihing. The same is true of all pro-
cesses Of printing pictures.
The wood engraving, the photographic
stone, the steel plate, all cost much at
the outset, but, being once produced,
they may be duplicated by various pro.
cesses at comparatively trifing cost.
Thus picture may be sold for a profit
at a penny, although to produce the first
one may have cost thousands of dollars.
GOVERNMENTAL PATTERNS.
The application of duplicating process
ses to the building trade has worked an
industrial revolution. 1t is true that one
result is to produce buildings much
alike. The designs for doors, windows,
stairways, stoops, vestibules, towers,
locks, bolts, mantels, sideboards, pier
glasses, cornices, and, in fact, all parts
of a building are used over and over
again, and the cost of building is there
fore much cheapened. The fact is that
many parts of buildings may be pur-
chased ready made and in any desired
quantities, and buildings constructed of
such material are put up very cheaply.
But when new designs are needed, odd
shapes, fancy styles, novel ornamental
ton, the cost is greatly increased.
Before the war all the paper money in
the United States was printed by private
companies, who owned all the plates and
patterns. Even the United States gov
ernment did not own the plates from
which its notes were printed, and in one
famous case the counterfeiter, by subter
fuge, procured from these private parties
for nominally honest purpose, the us'
of the devices used in printing United
States treasury note; and the device!
thus fraudulently obtained were actual
ly used to produce a spurious treasury
note, which was in many respects an ex
act duplicate of the original. That risl
led to the adoption of new plan b.
which, when the government got an
notes printed, the contractors were com
PEELED to surrender all the designs, pat
terms, dies and plates used to produc,
the issue, so that they could not by an,
possibility be used for any but legiti
mate purposes.
Ultimately that led to the establish
ment of the bureau Of engraving ant
printing, and the government now con
trols all the patterns of its paper none.
in the same way that it controls the die
of its metal coinage. The expense O
steel engraving is SO great that it is onl
by duplicating and using the same de
sign again and again that it is mad
profitable to use such beautiful design
as are used in commercial work, as notes
bonds, bills Of exchange, etc.
ABOUT DUPLICATES.
The pattern room Of q great machin
shop or locomotive works or engin
builder contains the accumulation {
years Of improvement and invention
As machine is developed and change
the patterns are altered and used owe
and over again. To produce the patterr
new every time a new machine is wante
would require great expense. A fire
q pattern shop is therefore great calan
ity, for it destroys patterns that ca
hardly be replaced.
1t often happens that one spoon or
fork Of an old set is lost or stolen. IF th
silversmith has preserved the die ne
spoon or fork may be made at trifin
cost But if q new die has to be cut, I'll
expense is very. great,
There are thousand and one ways (
using the same pattern for duplicatic
in various branches of industry. II
most beautiful products Of the sculptor
art are duplicated in plaster. The mo,
ern parlor stove is marvel Of the use
models in castings.
Lots of things are stamped. All kim
of brass and tin ware--pots, pans, Ike
ties, ash cans, walters, dishes and Il
thousand articles of domestic use th
are made from metals--go through Il
stamping machine. The very best talel
is therefore used to produce the origin
patterns. Sometimes artists OF very his
,repute, who would be very much aver
TO have ii known that they do pure