The morning call., 1894-08-05
PRINTING STAMPS.
The Process of Production
Described.
HOW THE INK is PREPARED.
Devices for Cumming and Perforat-
ing-The Number of Times Sheets
Have to Be Handled.


the little piece of colored paper that repre-
sents the number Of cents stamped upon
its face of the amount of labor and care
required in the production thereof? Ii
you have not you will be interested and
instructed in reading the following ac-
count furnished by Washington corre-
spondent to the Times of Philadelphia:
am the first newspaper man to whom
has been granted the privilege of witness
ing the processes by which Uncle Sam Ia
| beginning to print his own postage stamps
at the bureau of engraving and printing.
The wheels have started, and before many
days the machines will be turning out the
parallelograms of red, blue and green
paper at a rate to supply the Postoffice
| Department with the required 40, 600, 900
sheets per annum. Each sheet, as fur
nished to the Government will consist of
| 100 stamps.
The printing is done on queer-looking
| presses each of which produces 1900
stamps a minute, or about 100000 all hour.
Each press has an endless chain that car
ries four plates, on which the designs Of
| the stamps are engraved. On each plate
400 stamps are represented. The sheets
printed from these plates are intended to
be cut into quarters eventually, in which
shape they will be sold by the Postoffice
! Department.
Each plate is carried by the endless
chain first under an ink roller, from which
it receives a coating OF ink of the proper
color. Then it passes beneath pad of
! canvas, which OScillateS so as to rub the
ink in. Next it pauses for a moment
under he hands of man who pOlShes
! the plate. Finally a sheet of white paper
is laid upon the plate. both pass under a
roller, aud the sheet comes out on the other
side 400 printed postage stamps.
The plates revOlve in circle, as it
were. More accurately speaking, they
move around the four sides of square in
horizontal plane. While one is being
linked, another is being rubbed by the can
vas, another is being polished, aud the
fourth is passing under the printing roller.
The circuit takes about a minute. dur
ing which four sheets of 400 stamps each
are printed.
The most important part of the work.
requiring the greatest skill. is the polish
ing. 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 as fast as they are printed and stacks
them up in pile. This process gives tEe
results of hand-press work.
half dozen presses working together,
each turning out 100000 in an hour, can
produce 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 re-
celves. The sheets are counted in the wet
ting division before they are delivered to
him. After they are printed they are
counted before they are sent to the exam
ining division, where they are counted
again.
Spoiled sheets are 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 IL per cent is made to
him for spOilage. Ii he 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
i'll experiments.
If sheet is lost, it must be tacred back
to the last person who handled it, and that
individual will be required to pay. face
value for the stamps represented. Ii the
person responsible cannot be found, the
division which last handled the sheet
must pay. No loophole is left for the loss
of single one-cent stamp. After being
examined, the sheets are counted again
and are put between strawboards under
| hydraulic press to make them lie fiat.
| Thus they are counted more easily, and
can be made up into smaller bundles.
After undergoing the process they are
counted once more and sent downstairs
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 a novelty, being entirely diff
ferent from that used hitherto in such
work 1t is much m ore rapid and efficient,
and before long will doubtless supersede
the old plan, which is even now applied
10 the cumming of cigarette stamps for the
internal revenue.
The paste is applied 10 the cigarette
stamp by hand with brushes. AS fast as
they are gummed they are 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 purpose
more quickly, but it would be hard on the
work " omen. For this reason the slower
purpose is adopted. The new method. 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 descrp-
tion. 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
skeleton projects from the box for a few
feet at either extremity. The box is trav-
ersed 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 it is fed into the machine each sheet
passes under roller like the roller of a
printing press, TO which a gum made of
dextrine is slowly supplied. The sheet
takes up coat of this mucilage on its
flower 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 it the sheets are deliv-
cred at the rate of eighteen minute. Just
one minute is required for a sheet to pass
through the box and it is delivered per-
fectly dry.
The gummed sheets thus delivered are
passed over to a long table, where girls
pick them up in pairs and, placing the
gummed sides together, put them between
LAYERS of strawboards. Arranged in this
way they are placed under steam press
To fiatten them, the mucilage having
caused them to curl somewhat. On CON-
ing out of the press they are counted again,
and now they 60 to the perforating ma
chimes that make the pinholes by which it
is rendered easy 10 tear the stamps apart.
The perforating machine Is an arrange
ment of little wheels revolving parallel to
each other and just far enough apart to