The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1901-10-08
WE ALL USE THIS GUM
VOW THE STICKY STUFF ON POST
ACE STAMPS is MADE.

Coating Must Be UnIrorm-GreAtest Care
Exercised In Placing II on tho Letter
TRkers-i9, OOO.OO Stamps Gummed In
Eight-HOur Day.
Not one person in FIVE hundred who
licks a postage stamp ever dreams OF
the precautions taken by the bureau
OF engraving and printing to secure
! = uniform coating OF the best adhesive
Ind purest gum on the back OF the
stamps.
The process OF cumming postage
stamps is AZ much an exact science
as the building OF the large guns at
the Washington Navy Yard says the
Star. This work. like that OF prac-
tically 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 il
the coating of mucilage on the sheet
varies as much as seven ten-thOu-
! sandths OF pound.
| The room where the stamps are
! gummed IS airy and well lighted: 1t is
eighty by fifty feet and contains at
! present eight cumming machines The
stamps after being printed reach the
| cumming room from the examining
room in sheets eighteen and oue-halr
/ by twcnty-three inches. each sheet
containing 400 stamps. The sheets to
! be gummGd are fed by women
! operatives ON an endless chain belt.
| held by grippers. This chain belt
passes under glass cumming roller,
| which is automatically coated with
| the exact proportion 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 fifty feet
long, which contains coils OF steam
! pipes, which produce a temperature Of
| $50 degrees Fahrenheit. The sheets
of stamps, after Il slow journey of
one minute, emerge from the other
end of the drying box with the
mucilagc perfectly dry.
The machine automatically delivers
| the sheets on n table to lady oper-
alive. who, by passing her experienced
hand over the gummed surface. de
! termines il the sheets are properly
| Summed and If they are running
through the machines at just the right
degree of speed to insure their being
! properly dried.
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 cumming.
III they are found to be perfect they
are then counted and pressed and sent
To the perforating room. the process
or perfor0ting being In itself an ex-
| ceedlngly interesting one.
Ihe care taken to insure perfect uni
formity in the cumming of the stamps
IS not the least interesting part of the
| work. Every morning when the ma
chine pressmen report for duty they
are each given blank form. which
they must fill out during the day as
their work progresses.
a record is also kept on the blank
form or the number of printed sheets
OF stamps gummed. so that the fore
man. by Il glance at the graduated
scar! and the number OF printed sheets
gummed can tell at any moment If
each sheet is receiving its exact pro
portion OF gum.
RMS system is an elaborate check
on the gummed sheets. and was de-
signed 10 insure the proportiouate
quantity of gum on each sheet of
stamps Every afternoon the work.
men are given credit for the amount Of
| gum they return TO the Government
and the balance Is struck between the
! gum used. and the total number of
sheets gummed. Careful experiments
and exact scientific calculations have
determined the proportion OF gum and
paper.
To meet TIE different conditions Of
the seasons OF the year the quality of
the gum IS changed four times during
each year The winter or soft gum
is used during the months OF Noyem-
Der, December. January. February
and March. The summer or hard gum
is used during the months of June.
July. August and September. and the
spring and fall gums are used in Oc-
tOber, April and May. The summer
gum is the hardest. and hest resists
the humidity during the hot months of
summer, likewise preventing the sheets
of stamps sticking together in the
postofiices of the country The winter
gum is used TO enable the stamps to
resist frosty weather, which often
causes the stamps TO curl and crack.
The intermediate gum is used to meet
the conditions OF half warm and half
cold weather.
OF course. the most thorough pre-.
cautions are taken to begin with i'm
procuring the very best quality of ad-
Ecsiye postal gum This gum is de-
rived from dcxterinc. q product Sc
cured in the process of making starch
from potatoes. corn and cassaya root
The starch obtained from the fore
going vegetables Is treated by being
roasted at q temperature of about
300 degrees i'm it's early stages. when
it later turns 20 dexterinp. which is
later converted into postal gum. II
carried further than postal gum &c
changes to grape sugar or glucose.
The best postal gum for STAMPS is
that which contains the least uucou
yerted starch ana little. is any. glu
COsc
The material used for thc purpose of
making stamp gum looks very much
ike flour except in color. and is DEF.
iectly clean and wholly vegetable.
When the postal gum is delivered i'm
bulk at the bureau by the contractors
it is contained in double sacks of