Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-01-12

| Their Manufacture n Large Industry
Has Not Yet Reached Perfection.
| From the New York Sun.
The manufacture of ribbons for type
writing machines is an industry which
| gives employment to a large number of
people. On nearly all first-class typewrit-
ers these linked ribbons are used. There
are at least forty different styles of Ameri-
| can typewriters. and more than 100000
machines are in actual use. AS the aver
| age life of a ribbon is from four to six
| weeks, the number of concerns which seek
| to supply the market with this article is
| surprising.
They make ribbons of every conceivable
| color and variety, from six to ten yards
in length, and capable of writing with copy
ing or non-copying ink. Some ribbons are
made which print in one color and show an
entirely different color when the manu-
script is copied by means of the letter
press. For instance. a ribbon which writes
black may copy blue green, making the
record nuch more legfble on certain quail
tiles of paper The manager of a concern
in this city which turns out several hun
dred ribbons daily said to a Sun reporter
that. at a low estimate, fifty plants en-
gagged in the manufacture of these ribbons
have been established in the United States
this year.
Each manufacturer has a secret process
for making his particular style of ribbon,
and the secret is guarded with the greatest
possible care. One maker in this city has
each box and jar containing powder
pigment for making the ink distinctly num-
bered, and even the employe who mixes it
is obliged to follow his printed Instructions
mechanically, and remains entirely ignorant
of the composition he is using. One may
witness the whole process and go away as
ignorant before.
The best ribbons have selvaged edges,
which prevent their raveling and curling
when in use. They are nearly uniform in
thickness, though one ribbon is made of
very thin texture to be used when an extra
large number of carbon copies are desired,
and the imprint of the type must be
clear us possible and free from blurs. The
greatest care must be taken in selecting
the cloth from which the ribbons are made.
If the texture is woven too closely it will
not hold sufficient ink. and If woven too
loosely it will become clogged with ink and
smirch the paper. Moreover, such ribbon
will fill the type Of the machine and great
ly annoy the operator.
A prime difficulty encountered by manu-
facturers is how to prevent evaporation of
ink from the ribbon when it is in use and
exposed to the air. This has been largely
overcome in the last two three years.
The man in charge of a large New York
house which makes writing inks and type
writer ribbons said recently that the most
noticeable thing in his trade was the great
decrease in the sale of ordinary copying
ink. 1t is being almost entirely supplanted
by the copying typewriter ribbon which
gives far better results. Despite the great
number of ribbons in the market and the
constant efforts of expert chemists every
where to produce enc that will satisfy
everybody, those giving al-round satisfac
ton are not easy to find, and dealers in
supplies of this nature often have extreme
difficulty in furnishing what is wanted |
This country furnishes practically all the |
Typewriter ribbons in use both here and
abroad.