The Indianapolis journal., 1895-09-02
THE POSTAGE STAMP
HOW 1T Is MADE by THE BUREAU
OF ENGRAVING AND PRINTING.
The Complicated Process Described I'm
nm Interesting Manner-Dozens
of Pretty Faces.
special to the Indianapolis Journal.

of business or love regards it in the light
only of the prepayment OF his share Of the
expenses of conducting the postal business
of the United States. and has but little idea
of the many complicated processes through
which that small piece of pink paper passes
before finally reaching the purchaser. Until
a year or so ago all the postage stamps
used in this country were printed by the
American Bank Note Company. but by a
contract made by Postmaster-general Bis
sell the work of making the stamps was
transferred to the Bureau of Engraving
and Printing, and now that bureau turns
out not only the stamps used by this coun-
try, but occasionally takes flyer and
prints few stamps for foreign country,
as was the case with the recent issue of
Corean stamps. All this work is under
the direction of Mr.. Claude Johnson. who
is chief of the Bureau of Engraving and
Printing.
A correspondent of the Journal recently
called on Mr.. Johnson and was by him
shown through the stamp printing depart
ment os the bureau. Mr.. johnson is natu-
rally very proud of the work done in this
lire, as il illustrates the adaptive powers
of the great institution of which he is at
the head AT the time the contract for
making the stamps for the government was
entered into nothing of this kind had been
done at the bureau, and all the processes
for cumming the stamps, one of the most
important of the many processes, had to
be invented and constructed before a sin
gle stamp could be issued. The invention
used by the bank note company was the
property of that concern and could not be
used by the bureau. The stamp printing de-
partment of the bureau occupies a large
portion of the space of the building and
is now one of the most important parts
OF the big structure that fronts the Wash
The stamps, of course, are all engraved in
the bureau by the skilled workmen who
nave raised this work ip America to the
In consequence the stamps are the most
beautiful made in the world.
Every stamp is perfect steel engraving
ana as there are four hundred on single
plate from which the two-cent stamps are
printed, IL can be seen that an immense
amount of labor is required in the engrav-
ing department before a single stamp can
De printed. All the plates were made as
soon az the. contract was secured
new plate is wanted to replace one that
mas become worn it is reproduced from
marc aard steel roll; which was made from the
first plate produced. This steel roll and the
subsequent productions of soft steel plates
which are, in turn, hardened so as to he
used In printing are all made by exactly
OF greenback plates. Only the 2-cent stamps
are made IN plates Of four hundred, the
very beautiful Scent stamp and the costlier
plates containing only two hundred engrav-
lngs. The steel plates for the revenue
stamps contain comparatively few to a
plate, dinering In the number on a plate
according TO the size of the stamp.
MADE BY PRETTY MAIDENS.
The production of the stamps with which
the public are so familiar begins in we'll
lighted room down in the basement of the
bureau building. 1t is a long room, remark
ably quiet. when it is remembered that doz-
ems of printing machines are running con-
stantly in it, Its great attraction, however.
consists in the dozens of beautiful faces
seen throughout the length and breadth of
the ROOM There are more beautiful girls IN
the Bureau of Engraving and Printing than
could be corralled in any similar section of
the same size anywhere else in the United
States, or in any other country for that
matter. There are Titan blondes and large
nmbed svelte brCnettes, coy maidens with
that charming straw shade of hair and
petite little fays with the innocent look
one associates with converts and cloisters
They are the assistants in the making of
postage stamps, and the hurried man of
business who growls and grumbles because
his stamps have stuck together, because
they Will not stick to the letter he is mailing
would be more consderate could he bring
TO mind for moment the charming forces
that helped in the making of that stamp.
The main idea one gets. aside from the
feminine beauty with which the room il
filled. is that the place simply riots with
color. Here a huge brawny-armed fellow is
sweeping clean a plate he has just loaded
with a beautiful shade of green and it is
seen that his arm to the. shoulder, bare
entirely, is of the same color as the plate
he has just linked. The pretty little maiden
on the other side of the press has absorbed
some Of the green color. for il sticks to
hAr nh TEr<<
unto the hands of the masdens who sing the
I4prelei songs by the waters of the sea.
A short distance away three machines are
running off the huge sheets of the familiar
carmine two-cent stamp, and the color
seems to have penetrated the entire neigh
borhood. Much of 1T appears to have gotten
into the hair of the pert looking assistant,
but any one who attempted to tell her SO
would probably find ii had been wiser to
have considered that color as index to the
owners disposition. Here, too, the plate
printer is colored like an Apache on the
warpath His brawny arm is covered with
the reddish color, and as he wipes the ex-
cess OF ink from the plate with a sweeping
circular action Ii is seen that all the mus
cles of the forearm act as a mop to carry
off the color. With a quick but certain mo-
chine, turns a lever and the plate careSseS
a sheet of paper with giant compress and
the two are drawn away together beneath
the tightly squeezing rollers emerging on
the opposite side to fall into the hands of
the reddish-haired helper This operation
Is repeated time after tir1e, and the sheets
pile up in the bins into which they fall until
they are carried away to the other end of
the room. where they are shipped to the
cumming room.
Besides the machine presses in this print
ing room there are several hand presses,
long-legged spidery-looking affairs, which
are infitely slower in action and no better,
so far as results are concerned. than the
machine steam presses. There are thirty
or more presses running constantly in this
room according 10 the number of stamps
quired. From this room they are shot
across a corridor into a long hot room.
smelling like distillery, where the gum is
affixed TO the backs of the sheets Here the
sheets are fed to a hungry looking and act
ing machine. which gluts its appetite with
the printed pieces of paper with much the
same action of a plantation negro going for
a watermelon. The sheets are drawn into
a set of brass teeth that carry them be-
meath fountain filled with dextrine, and
here the gummy compound is spread over
secured by no other process. From the ma
chimes that gum the sheets they are led
away through a set of superheated boxes
several hundred feet in length. Three min
utes are required for the trip, and by the
time the stamps reach the far end of the
hot tunnel they are dried and ready for
shipping TO the perforating room. Before
they CO. however. they are carefully ex-
amned. and all defective or badly
gummed sheets marked in the
AS the full sheets are divided into sheets
of one hundred each the smaller sheets
in which the defect occurs is finally de-
stroyed as only perfect sheets are sent out
TO postmasters. All defects of the gum
ming machine are remedicd. however, by
a sharp-eyed little miss who sits In a little
corner by herself with paint brush. With