The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1901-09-12
WE ALL USE THIS GUM
HOW THE STICKY STUFF ON POST
ACE STAMPS is MADE.

Coating Must BE Uniform-trcatest Cnre
Exercised In Placing ~ ON the Letter
Talsers--19, 200, 900 stamps Gummed In
Eight-Hour Day.
Not one person in Ave hundred who
licks n postage stamp ever dreams OF
| the precautions taken by the bureau
Of engraving and printing to secure
u uniform coating of the best adhesive
and purest gum on the back OF the
stamps.
The process of cumming postage
| stamps Is as 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 II
the coating of mucllage on the sheet
varies as much as seven ten-thou-
sandths of a pound.
| The room where the stamps are
gummed is airy and well lighted; It is
present eight cumming machines. The
stamps after being printed reach the
cumming room from the examining
room in sheets eighteen and one-half
| by twenty-thsee inches. each sheet
containing 400 stamps. The sheets to
| be gummed are fed by women
| operatives on an endless chain belt.
held by grippers. This chain belt
passes under n 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 small tank
| just above. The gummed sheets are
then carried by the endless chain belt
into Il covered drying box fifty feet
long, which contains coils of steam
pipes. which produce temperature of
130 degrees Fahrenheit The sheets
of stamps, after slow journey of
one minute, emerge from the other
end of the drying box with the
mucilage perfectly dry
| The machine automatically delivers
the sheets on table to a lady oper-
ative, who by passing her experienced
| hand over the gummed surface, de-
termines If the sheets are properly
gummed 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 10 take out the curl of the paper,
and are again inspected TO see if
there are any defects in the cumming.
If they are found to be perfect they
are then counted and pressed and sent
to the perforating room, the process
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 of the
work. Every morning when the ma
chine pressmen report for duty they
are each given a blank form. which
tLey must ill out during the day as
tieir work progresses.
A record is also kept ON the blank
form of the number of printed sheets
OF stamps gummed, so that the fore
|
sca.s and the number OF printed sheets
gummed, can tell at amy moment if
each sheet is receiving its exact pro-
portion of gum.
This system is an elaborate check
ON the gummed sheets, and was de-
signed to insure the proportionate
quantity of gum on each sheet of
| STlnnG EUapu nft ~.
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
10 meet the 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 Novem-
ber, 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 best resists
the humidity during the hot months of
summer, likewise preventing the sheets
of stamps sticking together in the
postoffices 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
or course, the most thorough pre-
cautions are taken to begin with in
procuring the very best quality Of ad-
hesive postal gum. This gum Is de-
rived from dexterine, product Sc
cured in the process of making starch
from potatoes, corn and cassava root.
The starch obtained from the fore
going vegetables is treated by being
roasted at n temperature OF about
300 degrees in its early Stages. when
1t later turns to dexterlnc, which Is
later converted into postal gum. II
carried further than postal gum 1t
changes to grape sugar or glucose.
The best postal gum for stamps is
| that which eonfafna tha Iaact ,1noou