Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1900-10-25
HOW 40 PERSONS MAKE
ALL THE POSTAL CARDS


Philadelphia North American.
The modest plant that turns out mil
lions of postal cards every month for
Uncle Sam Is located 10 little West
Virginia mountain town, high up in
the Appalachian range, not far from
the border line Of Maryland.
The town Is Piedmont, Minera'
county, W. Va, and here the busy fac
tory is at work SIX days In the week
making the little olbong sheets of card
board on which so many messages OF
all sorts and kinds are written by all
conditions Of penple. Here tho card.
beard 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
finding their way into every State, city.
town and hamlet In the country, and to
Cuba, Porto Rico, Hawaii and the
Philippine Islands.
The paper out of which the pos
tai cards are manufactured is all made
at the large sulphte ard paper mills
located there, and adjoining the postal
works.
The postal card works are located 10
two story fireproof brick building,
with cement roof, and In which are
patent automatic fire sprinklers, with
an abundant supply of water at all
times for FIRE protection. The build
ing lie not large loo by 60 fiet.
Neither matches or smoking of pines
or cigars are allowed on the premises.
The front door of the works is always
under lock and key. During the sum
mer months large lattice doors are
used, with look and key. during the
day. A time-registering clock is USED
at night, which the watchme,i have ia
touch at regular intervals in thelt
rounds,
The first floor of the building is used
for pressroom, casingroom and dry
loom fer the printed postal cards.
Th ere are two presses in this, room,
and each press has a capacity CT LOO
Impressions an hour.
The size Of the sheets Of paper used or
these presses is so by 30 inches, and
each sheet contains 80 postal cards ready
to be cut and packed whom it comes
TO the press. The dies used on these
presses are furnished by the govern
ment. Four men work at the presses.
The men all work eight hours day,
One man is used in the casing part o.
the room to put together the knocked
down pine boxes in which the cards are
packed for shipment Ths boxes vary
n sizes, holding 5,O00, 10000, 25,00t
and 100, 00D caids, respectively.
The largest shipment ever made from
the Piedmont works was on June 10th
1900. when il reached the large number
of "a, 600, 600.
The cards were shipped to varinus
large city postoffices and to the sub
agencies. The sub-postal card agencie.
are located at Cincinnati. st. Louis
Troy, New York and Washington, D.
c., and are technically known as dis
tributing offices, where reqnisitions ar,
filled on orders of the stamp division
Of the Third Assistant Postmaster gen
raj.
The number of employees necessary I,
work this plant is only 40, of which
number 20 are men and 20 women
small number when the value and vol
ume of this vast business are taken inr,
consideration. AL are expert at thei
work.
Tie postal cards for use in the Philip
pines are also manufactured at thi
| plant, and are like the domestic card
but are surcharged with the word
/ lhat hpaoN wv Nikuebti
1t is the same with the postal card
manufactured for use in Cuba an,
Porto Rico. Those in use IN the Islau,
OF Hawaii are now the same as the do
mesto cards.
The buff stock used in the manufac
ture Of ali the cards Is made at Pied
mont by the paper company out O
| spruce wood, by what is technical
known as the "sulphite'' process. Hhl
process is so rapid that cards hav
been made from the fibre within tw,
days after the trees had been cut from
virgin the West Virginian forest.
Less than full CARROTS of cards ar
shipped through the postoffius at Pied
mont, and all are eRistered. This i
also the case with shipments for th
insular possessions. The full carlot
are shipped to the larger postotiice
and to the sub-agencies preyiousl
mentioned, 1000, 600 cards to the car
and they are valued at $40, 600 per car
Every car is sealed with o special sea
by Inspector Shook.