The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1900-12-01
HOW FORTY PERSONS MAKE ALL THE
POSTAL CARDS.

POSTAL CARDS.
The modest plant that turns out
millions of postal cards each and
every month for Uncle Sam is located
IN a little West Virginia mountain
town, high up i'll the Appalachian
range, not far from the border line Of
Maryland.
The town is Piedmont, Mineral Co.,
W. Va, and here the busy factory is
at work six days in the week making
the little oblong sheets of cardboard
on which so many messages, all sorts
and kinds, are written by all condi-
tlons OF people. Here the cardboard
is made from the fresh, sweet spruce
trees, here it is cut into the requisite
sizes, and here the cards are printed,
packed and shipped, eventually find
ing their way into every State, city
and hamlet in the country, and to
Cuba, Porto Rico, Hawaii and the
Philippine Islands.
The paper out of which the postal
cards are manufactured is all made at
the large sulphite and paper mills To-
Gated here, and adjoining the postal
works.
The postal card works are located
in a twostory fre-proof brick build
ing, witha cement roof, and in which
are patens automatic fire sprinklers,
with an abundant supply of water at
all times for fire protection. The
building is not large-Ioo by 60 feet.
Neither matches or smoking of
pipes or cigars s-e allowed on the
premises. The front door of the
works is always under lock and key.
During the summer months large lat
tice doors, are used, with lock and
key during the day. A time-regis-
tering clock is used at night, which
the watchmen have to touch at regu-
lar intervals in their rounds.
The first floor Of the building is
used for pressroom, casing room
and dry room for the printed pos
tai cards. There are two presses in
this room and each press has capa-
city of 1900 impressions an hour.
The size of the sheets of paper used
on these press is so by 80 inches,
and each sheet contains ninety postal
cards ready to be cut and packed
when it comes to the press. The
dies used on these presses are furnish
ed by the government. Four men
work at the presses. The men all
work eight hours a day. One man
is used in the casing part of the room
to put together the knock-down pine
boxes in which the cards are packed
for shipment. The boxes vary in
size holding 5000, 10000, $4,000 and
100, 900 cards, respectively.
The largest shipment ever made
from the Piedmont works was on
June I6, 1900, when it reached the
large number of "a, 900, 900.
The cards were shipped to various
large city postoffices and to sub-agen-
The sub postal SaIu asSnSivo
are located in Cincinnati, St. Louis,
Troy, New York and Washington.
D. c., and are technically known as
distributing Offices, where acquisitions
are filled on orders of the stamp di-
vision of the Third Assistant Post
master General.
The number of employees necessary
to run this plant is only forty, Of
which number twenty are men and
twenty are women-a small number
when the value and volume of this
vast business are taken into consider
alton. All are expert at their work.
The postal cards for use in the
Philippines are also manufactured at
this plant, and are like the domestic
cards, but are surcharged with the
word philippines" just below the
vignette. 1t is the same with the
postal cards manufactured for use in
Cuba and Porto Rico. Those in use
in the island of Hawaii are now the
same as the domestic cards.
The buff stock used in the manufac-
ture of all the cards is made at Pied
mont by the paper company out of
spruce wood, by what is technically
known as the "sulphite process. }"
This process is SO rapid that cards
have been made from the fibre with
in two days after the trees had been
cut from the West Virginia forest.
Less than full carlots of cards are
shipped through the postofice at
Piedmont, and all are registered.
This is also the case with shipments
for the insular possessions. The full
carlots are shipped to the larger post
offices and to the sub-agencies pre-
viously mentioned, 1900, 900 cards
to the car, and they are valued at
$40, 900 per car. Every car is sealed
with a special seal by Inspector
Shook.