The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1899-11-03
HOW PAPER rs RULED
METHODS FOLLOWED IN PREPARING
MODERN STATIONERY.

The Ruling Machine Is an interest
ing Piece of Mechanism, In Which
Ink Is Fed to the Pens by Strips of
Flannel on Strings of Yarn.
How many people who pick up small
memorandum book full of tiny eblue
squares know Of the manner or process
by which the lines are traced? The ma
jority of people, il asked this question:
will Immediately answer that the work
is done after the manner of all ordinary
printing-on a fast press making so many
thousand revolutions per minute. Hun
dreds of business men, perhaps, who or
der their ledgers, day books, journals,
billheads, etc, from the printer know
little different than that the men mpho set
the type and operate the presses are also
responsible for the red, blue, purple and
other colored lines that run perpendicu-
larry and horizontally over the pages in
their business books.
All the larger printing establishments
have book binderies attached, and here
the lines and special columns with which
a man may want his stationery marked
are put on, and not in the pressroom
proper, as might be supposed. There are
two places in Pittsburg where this work
Is done exclusively, and all except the
few larger printing houses send their
work to be lined, or, professionally speak
ing, ruled, in these establishments.
At paper ruling house on Second ave-
nue., where a reporter watched the meth
DDS of forming colored lines, the operator
In charge of the machines that do the
work explained many of the difficulties
encountered in accomplishing the delicate
fracings. The paper ruling machine re-
sembles an old Washington hand press,
with which our forefathers disseminated
the news. 1t consists of six uprights, be-
tween four of which are set two systems
of rollers. From a feed stand a boy or
girl adjusts the paper that is carried for
ward, traced, sent underneath through
series of blotter covered rollers and
eventually discharged between the last
two uprights in much the same manner
as the completed newspaper is vomited
from the printing press.
The pen with which the ruling is done
is by far the most interesting part of the
mechanism. This is grooved brass af-
fair about an inch and half long, CON
tanning at the top what is called a bowl,
into which the ink is passed to the groove
and thence transferred to the paper. IL
a dozen lines, for instance, are to be
ruled, a dozen pens, set at any required
distance apart, are employed. These are
adjusted to a beam over the wide blanket
on which the paper is carried, and the
bowls of the pens are kept constantly
supplied with fluid from a strip of fine
flannel saturated with the color of ink
desired.
When more than one color of line is to
4 e
with ink, placed at the top of the wooden
beam and the ends made to lie right in
the bowls of the pens. Over the strings
of yarn is placed the saturated flannel,
and on top of that is put a thin sheet of
tin or copper. From this sheet are run
more strings of yarn containing another
color of ink, and these yarn ends drop
into the bowls of other pens at the side
of those giving the first color When the
pens are properly adjusted, the colors
will not mix, even though at times the
lines are no farther apart than the five
hundredth part of an inch. Those who
will take the trouble to look at the hori-
zontal lines at the top of their billheads
and notice the purple line between the
two parallel red ones, leaving scarcely
perceptible margin of white, may appre-
ciate the extremely intricate nature of
the adjustments required to produce such
an effect.
As many colors as may be desired are
possible of being ruled at one impression
or passages of the paper over the blan-
ket 1t is also possible by the use of
more than one beam on the ruling ma
chine to trace varying lengths at the
same time. For instance, all the hori-
zontal lines, say, are ruled, and it is in
tended to rule a certain number of the
perpendiculars from the uppermost hori-
zontnl below the margin and another Sc
Ties fronr~d horizontal quarter or half
inch farther down-the paper. BY the use
of cams the paper is mode to meet the
pens attached to the first beam at the
right time to catch the uppermosL hori-
zontal Those lines are traced, and the
paper passes on under the pens in the
second beam, and the tracing begins ex-
actly at the next horizontal line describ-
ed. By the use of the same cams the
tracing can be stopped and resumed at
any part of the paper
Extraordinary care must always be eX'
ercised by the operator lest the moving
strings, which steady the paper on the
blanket, come in contact with the pens
and thus destroy the work by causing the
ink to run all over the paper. He must
also, with the aid of a brush, feed ink to
the flannel that in turn passes to the yarn
strings hanging in the bowls of the pens.
There is little danger of the flow becom-
ing at any time too heavy, but if the fluid
is not properly fed the lines will vary in
distinctness.
The consistency of the ink used in rul-
ing is much thinner than water, rendered
so by the application of oxgall. Almost
any quality of paper is capable of being
ruled, even to the fimsy material used in
manifolding The work of ruling is slow
compared with the modern methods of
turning out printed material but this is
made necessary by the extremely delicate
nature OF the work and the exceeding
care that must always be Observed
Pittsburg News.