The advocate., 1897-09-01


and young women, skilled artisans, are
employed in the work, and the great
red brick building on the banks Of the
Potomac under the shadow Of the
Washington monument is busy bee
hive for eight hours in the day.
The first step in the manufacture of
postage and revenue stamps Is the
making of the plates from which they
are to be printed. The plate for the
ordinary 2-cent stamp of everyday use
is sheet of steel twenty-One inches
by about thirteen inches. The en-
graver uses a sheet of soft steel upon
which he engraVes the design for 400
stamps.
The custody of these plates, together
with others, is conflded to one man.
Every afternoon the plates must be ac-
counted for and locked in vault I'm
til the last plate is in no employe of the
division Is allowed to leave the build
ing.
The plate now being finished, it is
sent to the press room. Some of the
stamps are printed upon hand presses
and others upon revolving steam
presses. The day / visited the bureau
the hand pressmen were working upon
beer stamps. There were twenty Of
these upon a sheet, and the printer and
his assistant were enabled to turn out
from 700 to 800 sheets day. The
pressman's assistant is always a young
girl, as a wOman's deft touch is re-
quired to handle the thin sheets Of
paper and place them accurately under
the press.
The paper upon which the stamps
are printed is made especially for this
purpose, and every sheet of 1t is
counted. In fact, from the time the
paper enters the press until it energies
sheet Of stamps in the storage rooms
it passes through fourteen divisions,
every one of which registers the sheet,
and these must tally as to totals at the
close of the day before an employe is
permitted to leave the building.
Every time the pressman runs a
plate through his machine he removes
1t and re-inks it. Upon this largely de-
pends the perfection Of the impression.
After mixing the plate he rubs the sur
plus ink from the surface with brush.
Then he passes his hands over a cake
Of chalk and rubs the plate briskly
with his bare palms. This cleans the
exposed parts of the plate thoroughly
and leaves the ink in the lines which
are to convey the impression to the
paper. The printer soon becomes a
mass Of ink from his hands to his
elbows, and sooner or later communi-
Gates 1t to his face, as we'll as daubing
it over his apron. A carmine cOlOred
ink is used in printing the 2-cent
stamps, and the press room has a de-
cidedly sanguinary appearance. The
young lady assistants average about
$1.25 a day, while the pressmen run
from 81 to $6 day in earning capacity.
Where the steam presses are used
four steel plates, each one printing 400
stamps, work upon an endless chain
passing in front of the pressman. In
this operation his duties are confined
to cleaning the plates with his hands,
as described above, the machinery do
ing the mixing and pressing. He can
press about seven sheets every sixty
seconds, and has two young women to
assist him, one who feeds the press
and the other to remove the sheets.
The sheets Of stamps are now ready
to be gummed, perforated and divided.
After the ink has been dried and the
sheets pressed fat, they are sent to an
other room, where another gang handle
them. The cumming machine is a
simple apparatus which distributes an
even flow Of mucilage upon the reverse
side of the stamp. 1t is done autOmati-
cally, so that there is no waste and no
surplus Of the mucilage upon any part
Of the sheet.