Birmingham age-herald., 1894-11-08

by skilIful Hands-Most Important Part of the Entire Operation Is Polishing the
 Plates-How They Are Gummed.
 The postoffice department requires an nually 40, Uo9 GOO sheets, each containing 100 postage stamps.
 The printing is done on queer looking presses, each of which produces 1,600 stamps a minute, or about 100000 an hour. Each press has an endless chain that carries four plates, on which the de signs of the stamps are engraved. On each plate 400 stamps are represented. The sheets printed from these plates arc in- tended to be cut into quarters eventually, in which shape they will be sold to the postoffico department Each plate is car ried by the endless chain first under an ink roller from which it receives a coat ing of ink of the proper color. Then it passes beneath pad of canvas, which os cillates so as to rub the ink in. Next it pauses for 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 comes out on tho other side 400 printed postage stamps. The plates revolye in a circle, as it were. More ac curately speaking, they move around the four sides of a square in a horizontal plane.
 While one is being linked another is be- ing rubbed by the canvas another is be- ing polished, and tho fourth is passing uns der the printing roller The circuit takes about minute, during which four sheets of 400 stamps each are printed
 The most important part of the work, recurring the greatest skill, is the polish ing. It is done with the bare hands, no other method being equally efficient. The object is to leave exactly enough ink for good impression and no more. One girl lays the white paper sheets upon the plates, while another young woman re- moves them as fast as they are printed and stacks them up in pile
 This process gives the results of hand press work. Half dozen presses working together, each turning out 100, 900 stamps m hour, can produce good many mil lions 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 ho received. These sheets are counted in the wetting division before they are delivered to him. After they are printed they are counted before they are sent to the examining division, where they are counted again.
 Spoiled sheets arc counted as carefully as perfect ones, because they represent money If lost or stolen, they could be used On each sheet appears the special mark of the printer who turned it out. An allowance of l T per cent is made to him for spoilage
 If he exceeds the allowance, he must pay for the extra loss at the actual cost of pa- 1ar, ink and labor represented. If the per
 psponsible cannot be found, the divi- sion which last handled the sheet must pay.
 No loophole is left for the loss of sin gle cent stamp. After being examined the sheets are counted again and arc put between strawboards under 0 hydraulic press to mako them lie flat. Thus they are counted more easily and can be made up into smaller bundles. Ae
 After undergoing this process they are counted onco more and are sent down stairs to be gummed and perforated. The method of cumming Is novelty, being wholly different from that utilized hither to 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 in ternal revenue The paste is applied to the cigarette stamp by hand with brushes. As fast as they are gummed they arc laid sheet by sheet on slated frames, which are piled in stacks.
 The stacks are wheeled on trucks into room where they are placed in front of electric fans so that the cool air may dry them Hot air would accomplish the pur- pose more quickly, but it would be hard on the workwomen. For this reason the slower process is adopted. The new meth cd to be applied to the postage stamps will be an immense improvement in every way.
 The machines for this purpose have just been set up. There are two of them, ex- actly alike, and one will do for descrip- tion. Imagine @ wooden box nearly 50