Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1901-05-15
8EHz4Azaf1eNs 1
81 .s5ss
VALUABLE SECRET.
One Family Has Furnished Stamp
Cancelers For Sixty-fve Years.

SohcchCEs pOE
Since 1885 all the machines by which
postage stamps are Cancelled and en-
velopes marked with the name of the
postoffice, the date, etc, have been
made by one family. In the year NAM
ed the postmaster general entered into
a contract with Benjamin Chambers,
citizen of Washington, to furnish a
device by which postage stamps might
be Cancelled so that they could not be
used again, and, although there have
been multitude of competitors on sew
eral occasions, that contract has been
renewed year after year for G5 years
with Mr.. Chambers, his son and his
grandson, who have a secret process
by which the dies are made of mallea-
Bile iron and carbonlzed into steel at
cost of from 80 cents to $2.75 each.
1t is certainly the only government
contract and probably the only con-
tract in the United States that has
been renewed so often and continued
so long. The department buys about
S25,000 worth of new cancelers every
year. Bids are advertised for annually,
and every now and then some ambi-
tious manufacturer who thinks he has
good thing offers n proposal, but the
Chambers family are invincible. They
have improved the device until 1t Is
now almost perfect.
The stamper Is a circular cast steel
box with screw thread, one end of
which Is closed and is provided on
the outside with square shank to
secure 1t to the hard wood handle. The
cover Of the box Is q disk of steel. A
portion Of its thickness enters the box
by means of screw thread around Its
periphery of almost 20 threads to the
inch. This permits Of a space between
the inner face Of the die and the bot
tom of the box, while the remaining
thickness of the disk forms a flange
with the edge, which is coarse milled,
go that the disk may be turned with
the hand or n wrench. On the outer
face of the disk are characters Of the
body Of the cylindrical die. These COM
bine the marking and the canceling
devices, one being on one side of the
disk, inclosing the name of the post
office In circle. There are three slots
for removable type, for months, dates,
hour and half hour. Dramatically op-
poslte the circle Is the canceling device,
the side of which Is parallel with the
edge of the disk. Any required num-
Der or letter Is cut in relief in the cen
ter, while three grooves are cut In
tagllo. The removable types are OF
steel and have on the ends opposite
their faces projections from their outer
edges, so that when inserted in the
slots the projections can be clamped
and held in place.
Until 1880 Captain Chambers manu-
featured the cancelers here in Wash
ington, and he is still required to main
tain a repair shop in the neighborhood
of the postotfice department, but he
moved his factory to Northumberland
county, Va, on leg of land at the
mouth of the Potomac, where he has
little village composed exclusively of
his employees and their families. No
one can enter his grounds without per-
mission, and those who have been
there say 1t is quite an ideal little vii
lage, safe from the spies of competi-
tors who would like to get the con-
tract away from him.-Washingto
Cor New York Tribune.