Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1906-06-15
SECRET OF POSTAL MARKS.
One Man Has Monopoly of the Max
ina of Steel Dies.


the receiving and sending of the Uni
ted States mails would come to a sud-
den halt.
The isolated place Is where all the
steel postal marks used by the gov
ernment in the transaction Of it's pos
tai business are manufactured, and
the secret process of their manufac-
ture is carefully guarded. A fear that
the process would be discovered caus-
ed the owner, Benjamin Chambers, to
seek the seclusion Of one of the most
desolate and out of the way points of
Northumberland county, Virginia, and
remove the plant from the national
capital, where his father had carried
on the business Of furnishing the post
| office department with stamp markers
since 1885, barring four years Of the
war, when he was too old to look af-
ter the manufacture, and his, son, the
present owner, was fighting for his
country, as a captain in the Second
Pennsylvania regiment During these
four years the contract was awarded
to the William Fairbanks company Of
| Connecticut, which was glad enough
to give up the contract, as IL was real
lied that it could not deliver the
goods" and the department was pay
| ing fully five times as much for an in
| ferior steel stamp. Benjamin Cham
bers was awarded the contract by the
department in 1867, and has held 1t
continuously since. At times others
have attempted to break in on the
contract, but no successful effort has
been made, and Mr.. Chambers ex-
presses the belief that he will be able
to leave the plant and contract to his
sons, as they were left to him by his
father.
II feel entirely safe with my secret
here" sad Mr.. Chambers, as he sat
surrounded by a number Of his work.
men. There is not a man in my en-
ploy who would be tempted for any
| sum Of money to divulge what he
knows of the secret. 1 could not trust
the class of men l was forced to en-
ploy in Washington; / knew that the
most desperate efforts were constantly
made to tind out the secret processes,
and l determined TO, get where my
business and my men would not be
tampered with. That is why located
here and employed these native peo-
pie to do my work. To a man they
would die before they would give
away anything touching the business
and they take just as much interest in
my affairs as though it was theirs.
| Mr.. Chambers Is willing and con-
tented to let we'll enough alone and
be satisfied with a living profit on his
product, even If it is product impos-
sible to be obtained save from him
self At the close Of the civil war the
postofice department was paying $24
each for the larger stamps and $5.25
for the smaller. The price Of the for
mer is now 1926 and the latter $1.70,
which is a slight increase over the
prices Of previous years owing to the
| increased price of steel and other ma
| terials. The steel for stamps Is made
by the ton by a Pittsburg company
and is of superior quality. The in
| creased cost Of the stamps Is due to
larger number of letters and figures
used, the postoffice department now
requiring not only the hour but the
minute recorded by the stamp. Each
stamp furnished must be guaranteed
TO serve for two years, and 1t Is seldom
that one fails to serve its allotted time,
but occasionally some country post
master, who uses a piece of grave
stone for an linking and stamping slab
will hammer the hard steel type into
ribbons in six months. First-class Of
fees, where there are the right kind
of stamping tables. wear out fewer
stamps than the cross roads postof7
fees. Last year congress appropriat-
ed $37,500 for postmarking and rat
ing stamps and the present appropria-
ton Of $4,000, but not all Of this Is
expended for the Chambers stamp,
his bills running to something like
$4,000 annually. There are rubber
and other stamps made Of metal type
I'm which Chambers has no hand.
One can scarcely believe that the
making of these simple looking
stamps would require machinery suf-
ficient to build a locomotive, but 1t
does and the large building here is
crowded with machinery of the finest
and most expensive make. Much Of
this machinery is of the invention OF
Mr.. Chambers father and much of 1t
Is his own. Mr. Chambers has spent
months and years Of study in trying
to solve certain points about his in
ventions which have simply not reach
ed stage Of perfection, and he feels
that everything connected with the
machinery and the manufacture OF
the stamps is secure from all prying
interferences by men who would give
a fortune to learn the secret which
has caused the government to pay
Chambers, father and son, fully ST.
25O,000 during their contracts or six
weight years. There are now almost
90, 900 postoffices in the United States.
Each and every Office down to the
smallest hamlet must have a post
marking stamp, and the consequence
is that the stamp factory here in this
lonely spot of land almost surrounded
by water. is kept running on full time
and the native Virginians who do the
work are ready to severely handle any
prying individual who comes nosing
around.-Kansas City Star.
TURKISH TROOPS IN JERUSALEM
Their Many Duties, Drills, Pay and
| Punishments