The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1900-10-04
NUMBER 80.

The modest plant that turns out mil
lions of postal cards each and every
month for Uncle Sam is located in
little West Virginia mountain town,
high up in 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 of all sorts
and kinds are written 10y all conditions
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 finding their way
into every State, city and hamlet in
the country, and to Cuba, Porto Rico,
Hawaii and the Philippine Islands.
The paper out oG which the postal
cards are manufactured is al made at
the large sulphitc and paper mills To-
Gated there, and adjoining the postal
works.
The postal card works are located in
Il two-story tirc-proof brick building,
with II cement roof, and in which are
patent automatic fire sprinklcrs, with
an abundant supply Of water at all
times for fire protection. The building
is not largc-lOO by 60 feet.
Neither matches or smoking of pipes
or cigars are allowed on the premises.
The front door of the works j. always
under lock and key. During the sum-
mcr months large lattice doors are used,
with lock and key during the day. A
timc-rcgistcring clock is used at night,
which the watchmcn have to touch at
regular intervals in their rounds.
The first floor Of the building is used
NJ, casing room and dry
room lor ..o printed poo,,.. cards
There are two presses in this room and
each press has capacity of 1900 impress
sions an hour.
The size Of the sheets ofpaper used
on these presses is SO by 80 inchcs,a and
each sheet contains ninety postal cards
ready to he cut and packed when it
comes to the press. The dies used ON
these presses are furnished by the gov
ernmcnt. Four men work at the press
cs. The men all work eight hours
day. One man is used in the casing
art Of the room to put together the
knocked-down pine boxes in which the
cards are packed for shipment. The
boxes vary in size, holding 5000 10000,
y, 600 and l0O,O 600 cards, respectively.
The largest shipment ever made from
the Piedmont works was on June Is,
1900 when it reached the large num-
Der of 24,OO0,0oc.
The cards were shipped to various
large city postofliccs and to sub-agcn-
cics. The sub-postal card agencies are
located in Cincinnati, st. Louis, Troy,
New York and Washington, ID. C.,and
are technically known as distributing
offices, where acquisitions are filled on
orders of the stamp division Of the
Third Assistant Postmaster General.
The number Of employees necessary TO
run this plant is only forty, of which
number twenty are men and twenty
are womcn-a small number when the
value and volume of this vast business
are taken into consideration. All are
expert at their work.
The postal cards for use in the Phil
ippncs are also manufactured at this
plant, and are like the domestic cards,
but are surchargcd with the word
"Philippincs' just below the vignette.
1t il the same with the postal cards
manufactured,for use in Cuba and Por-
to Rico. Those in use in the island of
Hawaii are now the SAME as the do
mcStlc caruS.
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 within two days
after the trees had been cut from the
West Virginia forest.
Less than full carlots Of cards are
shipped through the postoflice at Pied
mont, and all are registered. This is
also the case with shipments for the in
sular possessions. The full carlots are
clipped to the larger postoffices and to
the sub-agencies previously mentioned.
1000, 600 cards to the car, and they are
valued at SAC, 900 per car. Every car is
sealed with special seal by Inspector