The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-11-14
CUMMING OF POSTAGE STAMPS.

They Are Safe to "Lick"-six Machines
 Gum 100000 in A Hours.
 Not one person in 800 who licks a postage stamp ever dreams of the pre- cautions taken by the bureau Of en- graving and printing to secure uni form coating of the best adhesive and purest gum on the back of the stamps. The process of cumming stamps IS as much an exact science as the building of the large guns at the Washlngtofl navy yard. This work, like that or practically all other similar kinds for the government, Is done at the bureau of engraving and printing, and so ac- curate is the process of cumming stamps that when the work is finished the stamps are tested to discover 1T the coating of muscilage on the sheet varies as much as 7-10, booths of pound The room where the stamps are gum med is very airy and well lighted; 1t IS so by 50 feet and contains at present eight cumming machines. The stamps, after being printed, reach the cumming room from the examining room in sheets IS 1-2 by 23 inches, each sheet containing 400 stamps. The sheets to be gummed are fed by women opera tives on an endless chain belt hei py grippers. This belt chain pasess under a glass cumming roller, which is auto matically coated with the exact propor- tions of mucilage to be received by the sheet. This mucilage is fed to the roller from a small tank just above. The gummed sheets are then carried by the endless chain belt into covered drying box 50 feet long, which contains colls or steam pipes, which produce a tempera- ture of 13O degrees Fahrenheit. The sheets of stamps, after slow journey of one minute, emerge from the other end of the drying box with the mu- cilage perfectly dry.
 The machine automatically delivers the sheets on table to lady opera tive. who. by passing her experienced hand over the gummed surface, deter mines if the sheets are properly gum med and if they are running through the machines at just the right degree of speed to insure their being property dried. The woman who receives the gummed sheets can, if desired touch an electric button, which telegraphs to the oneratiye feeding the sheets to the ma chine at the other end of the room, falling her to increase or diminish the sneed of the chain belt, or she can sig nal by A pre-arranged code In regard to any defect in the gummed surface re- curing immediate attention. In this connection it might be interesting to state that the automatic machines ana chain belt are operated by electric mo- tors running at varying degrees or speed to suit the varying conditions or the atmosphere as the drying boxes will not dry the gummed sheets or stamps as rapidly in damp as in dry weather. After being gummed the sheets are rolled to take out the curl of the paper. and are again inspected to see if there are any defects in the gum ming. If they are found to be perfect they are then counted and pressed ana sent to the perforating room, the pro- cess of perforating being in Itself an eX- ceedingly interesting one.
 The care taken to insure perfect uni formity in the cumming of the stamps Is not the least interesting part or the work Every morning when the ma chine pressmen report for duty they are each given a blank form, which they must fill out during the day as their work progresses. On this blank is kept an accurate account of every ounce or gum given to the pressmen and of every sheet of stamps gummed on each na- chine. The workmen are also required to state on this blank just how many ounces of gum have been distributed on each 1000 sheets of stamps during the day. Each small tank is filled by weight of 52 pounds of liquid gum, ex- actly enough to gum 2,0O0 sheets or stamps. In this tank ther is grad uated scale, which indicates at any mo- ment just how much gum has been used. A record is also kept on the blank form of the number of printed sheets of stamps gummed, so that the foreman, by a glance at the graduated scale and the number of printed sheets gummed, can tell at any moment II