The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-11-14
HAyEN MORNING NOVEMBER

eaCh sheet IS recelVlHS US SxdCt plOpOE- ton of gum. This system Is an elabor- ate check on the gummed sheets, and was designed to assure the proportion ate quantity of gum on each sheet of stamps. Every afternoon the workmen 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 scien- tific calculations have determined the proportion of gum and paper,
 The varying degrees of humidity in the atmosphere present many difficult ties to the operatives In the cumming room. Experiments have shown that the Mississippi valley south of St Louis to New Orleans, Is the most trying part of the United States to furnish gummed stamps to, by reason of the excessive humidity which prevails there at nearly all seasons, causing the sheets to stick together. The stamp experts at the pu- reau are of the opinion that stamps which will meet the requirements or New Orleans will be suitable for any other part of the country. Another 1n- teresting matter In connection with the cumming of stamps Is the atmospheric condition of the room In which the stamps are gummed. This has to be very closely watched. Experiments have demonstrated that 1t IS necessary to keep the room at temperature or 80 degrees and 55 per cent. humidity. The temperature and humidity are tax en each hour of the working day ana the results are recorded on plack- board made for the purpose, so that each employe may see what the condl- tions are. To meet the different conul- tions 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 or November, December, January, Febru- ary and March. The summer or hard gum Is used during the month or June, July, August and September. and the spring and fall gums arc used In Octo- ber April and May. The summer gum is the hardest and best resists the hu- midity during the hot months of sum- mer, likewise preventing the sheets of stamps from sticking together in the postofflces 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 precau- tions are taken, to begin with, In pro- curing the very best quality of adhesive postal gum. This gum is derived from dextrine, a product procured Tn the process of making starch from potatoes, corn from cassava root. The starch op- tained from the foregoing vegetables IS treated by being roasted at tempera- ture of about 300 degrees in its early stages, when 1t later turns to dextrine. which is later converted into postal gum. If curled further than postal gum it changes to grape sugar or glucose. The best postal gum for stamps Is that which contains the least unconVerted starch and little, if any glucose. The material used for the purpose of mak- ing stamp gum looks very much like flour except in color, and if perfectly clean and wholly vegetable. When the postal gum is delivered in bulk at the bureau of the contractors, it Is contain ed in double sacks of 200 pounds each. Before using every consignment IS carefully inspected and is subjected to a microscopic examination and chemi- cal analysis by the bureaus chemist. This is to discover if the gum Is of the best quality and up to the standard furnished by the successful bidders. It is next tested to see if 1t meets with the working requirements of gum ming stamps. The qualities re- ouired by the government in the gum are adhesivenees, luster, absence of grit, f1exibility. resistance to humanity, and color. If the gum does not meet all these requirements, 1t Is rejected. At the present time about eight hun dred pounds of dry gum Is used daily, and the contractor for the present fiscal year will be required to furnish about two hundred and eighty thousand pounds The average cost of the dry postal rgum is about six cents pc pound, and thus the daily cost to the government of gum for stamps Is about forty-eight dollars.
 Down in the basement of the bureau there are three big steam -jacketed kettles of the capacity of one hundred gallons each, where the gum Is made Dy an eSIdDllSlleu lolliluio' ih'o ID done by mixing the dry gum with wa ter and by carefully boiling it until the gum is cooked. The kettles are exceed ingly clean, and the boiling must be at just the proper degree. After the gum is boiled it is pumped to a settling tank, where it Is strained and reduced to the proper specific gravity. It is next pumped up four stories to the stamp gumming-room, where 1t Is re- ceived and again strained into large tank fifteen feet above the floor. An other test is then made for tempera- ture and specific gravity, and the gum Is ready to be conveyed by pipes to the small tanks over the cumming rollers, upon which it drips in tiny streams. The greatest cleanliness is required at every step in the process of boiling and handling the gum, and as the gum is purely vegetable the stamp flicker need not have the slightest hesitancy in ap- plying his mostened tongue to the stamp. The eight machines now in the cumming room have a capacity of six ty-one thousand sheets, or nineteen million stamps, in one day of eight hours work Both United States pos tage stamps and documentary and pro- prietary revenue stamps are gummed by these machines. At the beginning of the Spanish American war, when there was an urgent demand for war revenue stamps, there were only six of