Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-07-21

many days the ma
chimes will be turn
Ing out the paraIlelograms of red. blue and
green paper at rate to supply the Post
Office Department with the required forty
million sheets per annum. Each sheet, as
furnished to the government, will consist
of 100 stamps. The printing is done on
queer looking press es, each Of which pro-
duces LOGO stamps a minute. about
100000 an hour. Each press has an endless
chain. that carries four plates, on which
the designs of the stamps are engraved.
On each plate 400 stamps are rel resented.
The sheets printed from these pIates are
intended to be cut into quarters eventually.
in which shape they will be sold by the
Post Office Department.
Each plate Is carried by the endless chain
first under an ink roller. from which it re-
ceives a coating Of ink of the proper color.
Then 1t passes beneath pad of canvas,
which oscillates SO as to rub the ink in.
Next 1t pauses for a moment under the
hands of a man who polishes the plate.
Finally, sheet OF White paper is laid upon
the plate both pass under roller. and the
sheet cones out on the other side 400
printed postage stamps. The plates revolve
in circle. as 1t were-more accurately
spes king, they move around the four sides
Of a square in a horizontal plane. While
one is being linked another is being rubbed
by the canvas. another is being polished,
and the fourth Is passing under the print
Ing roller Tho circuit takes about min
ute, during which four sheets Of 400
stamps each are printed.
Hand Press Work.
The most imports mt part of the work, re-
quiring the greatest skill, is the polishing.
1t is done with the bare hands. no other
method being equally efficient. The object
Is to leave exactly enough ink for a good
impression. and no more. One girl lays
the white paper sheets upon the plates,
while another young woman removes them
fast as they are printed and stacks
them up In a pile. This process gives the
results OF hand press work. Half a dozen
presses working together, each turning out
100000 stamps an hour, can produce a good
many millions In day. Three hands are
required for each press-the printer, who
does the polishing. and two girls. The
printer must account for every sheet of
blank paper that he receives. The sheets
are counted In the wetting division before
they are delivered % him. After they are
printed they are counted before they are
sent to the examining division, where they
are counted again.
SPOILED sheets are counted as carefully as
perfe I ones. because they represent money.
If lost stolen. they could be used. on
each sheet appears the special mark Of the
a @
IL per cent is made to him for spOilage.
If lie exceeds that allowance, he must pay
for the extra loss at the actual cost OF
paper, ink and labor represented. This rule
does not apply yet, for the presses are
hardly adjusted and hundreds of sheets
have been spoiled in experiments. If a
sheet is lost, it must be traced back 10 the
asst person who handled it, and that indi-
vidual will be required to pay face value
for the stamps represented. If the person
responsible cannot lie found, the division
which last handled the sheet must pay. No
lCcphOle is left for the loss Of a single l-cent
stamp. After being examined, the sheets
are counted again and are put between
straw boards under an hydraulic press to
make them lie fat. Thus they are counted
n ore easily, and can be made up into small
err bundles.
Novel Cumming Machine.
After undergoing this process they are
counted once more and are sent down stairs
to be gummed and perforated. For these
purposes the bureau of engraving has pur-
chased entirely new machinery, and the
means employed are more than ordinarily
interesting. The method of cumming in
particular. is novelty, being wholly differ
ent from that utilized hitherto in such
work. 1t is much more rapid and efficient,
and before long will doubtless supersede the
old plan, which is even now applied TO the
cumming of cigarette stamps for the inter-
nal revenue. The paste is applied TO the
cigarette stamp by hand with brushes. As
fast as they are gummed they are laid
sheet by sheet on Slated frames, which arc
piled in stacks. The stacks are wheeled on
trucks into room where they are placed in
flont of electric fans, so that the cool air
may dry them. Hot air would accomplish
the purpose more quickly. but It would be
hard on TIE workwomen. For this reason
the slower process is adopted. The new
method. to be applied to the postage stamps,
will he an immense improvement in every
way.
The machines for this purpose have just
been set up. There are two of them, exact
~ alike, and one will do for description
Imagine a wooden box nearly sixty feet
long, four feet high and three feet wide
From end to END runs what might be taken
for the skeleton Of trough. This skele-
ton projects from the box for a few feet
at either extremity. The pox is traversed
by two endless chains. running side by side
two feet apart. Into one end the sheets OF
printed stamps are fed one by one. As II
Is fed into the machine, each sheet raises
under roller like the roller Of a printing
press, to which gum made Of dextrine
is slowly supplied. The sheet takes up a
coat of this mucilage on its lower side and
is carried on by the endless chain through
the long box. The box is hot-air box,
being heated by steam pipes. At the other
end Of II the sheets are delivered at the rate
Of eighteen a minute. Just one minute is
required for sheet to pass through the
box and 1t is delivered perfectly dry.
Again They Are Counted.
The gummed sheets thus delivered are
passed over to long table, where girls
pick them up in pairs, and, placing the
gummed sides together. put them between
layers Of straw-bQards. Arranged IN this
| way, they are placed under a steam press
to fiatten them, the mucilage having caused
them to curl somewhat. On coming out Of
the press they are counted again, and row
they go to the perforating machines that
| make the pinholes by which 1t is rendered
easy to tear the stamps apart.
The perforating machine is an arrange
ment of little wheels revolving parallel to
each other and just far enough spart to
make the perforations as one sees them in
| a sheet of finished stamps fresh bought at
the post office. After the perforations have
been made across the sheet one way by one
machine, the sheet must pass through
second machine for the cross perforations.
In the middle of each machine Is a krife
which cuts the sheet in two. so that the
| sheet of 400 comes out of machine No. /
in two sheets Of 200 each, and these are
divided into four sheets of 100 each by the
second perforating machine.
| 1t is an old, though not Well authenticated
story that. when the British government
wished to discover way to tear stamps
apart readily. 1t offered $4,000 for an &C.