The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1907-04-28
Factory in Maine Has New
FOur-year Contract.
OUTPUT ENORMOUSLY LARGE
In Last FOur Years $500, 900, 600
Cards Have Been Manufactured.
spruce Trees Furnish Material.
Paper Cor Postage stamps Is Also
Made IN Maine Tovvn.

Cd states pusLal cara btluiukdltS the III
dustFy OF Rumford Falls. DE. The pur-
chase Of a postage stamp booms the in
dustry Of "a neighboring town, Mechanic
Falls, Ne
The big factory at Rumf0rd Falls has
recently been awarded another f0ur-yeaI
contract by the United States govern
ment. In the last four years the out
put has been 3 20O.O0Oeo0 cards. Such cit
les as Boston and New York consume
about two carloads a day.
After the spruce logs from the Maine
woods have been chewed and chemically
treated. the pulp flows into big vat
called the "digester," says the Boston
Herald Here the pulp looks like a rich
ohurniug. but it is in reality the solu-
ton from which the cards are made
cards that viii later carry written mes
sages all over the civilized world.
The wood pulp is flowed out on a screen
of such fine mesh that the paper is long
in gathering. and the result OF this more
than ordinary shaking is firm. smooth
card of the familiar cream yellow. free
from inequalities Of texture and from
all flakes or shadows when held 10 the
light.
Women Act as Inspectors.
in the big clean finishing room, where
the floor is Uttered with a clutter of
book and news paper sit "a score of
neatly attired women smoothing the great
sheets of book and postal stock into piles
The least defect in the surface is detect
ed al once by their representative finger
tips. and sheet after sheet is rejected for
a blemish. invisible, save TO the touch
Great trucks carry the postal paper TO
the printing establishment, but before the
presses are set to work each load must be
inspected by a government Inspector.
This inspector first applies the bulk
gauge to prove that the postal card is up
10 the standard i'm thickness.
The contract requires that each sheet
be 0ne-eleveuth th0usandth part of an
inch I'm thickness. The second require
ment is that every sheet shall endure the
test Of nifty pounds pressure to the square
inch. 50 into the strength tester goes the
sheet from the truck load the pressure
is applied and the indicator shows the
value of the sheet
The blind mans test" or German test.
is the third, and il is designed to show
whether the surface of the card is prop
erIy resiued, sized, or finished. II is an
application of vigorous pen and ink.
Should the ink be absorbed the surface
Is inferior i'm its glaze When the mark
inss are plainly apparent 10 the touch
with blind eyes, the caleHdeTing is sat
tsfact0ry. Each sheet OF stock fed into
the printing press is registered autOmau-
cally, SO that an exact tally can be kept
of all cards printed. The two presses
have a united capacity of 100000 cards
daily.
Cumming She Packages.
The girls who gum the packages to-
gether have 10 be very spry. With q doz-
en- gummed strips between their lips.
their trained fingers hover over the
straight-edged packs OF postal cards like
humming birds. till. with a dash and
futter, the band is in place. and Il second
packet is in readiness for a band
one young woman is behind each ma
chine to box these packets and others are
kept busy folding the pasteboard boxes in
which they are packed 500 in d box The
pasteboard packages are placed in wood
en- boxes of different sizes. They hold
5000. 10000. and 50.009 cards. The boxes are
very strong and are nailed together at the
postal card mills by machinery.
The postal card craze has no effect I'm
Rumford Fails. There is no busy season
in the card mill. The same amount is
printed day after day. The government
requires that a certain amount be on
hand at the factory. These are kept in a
fire and burglar proof vault which has a
capacity of lC0.000000 cards.
Stamp Paper Made in Maine.
But this is not all the money Uncle
Sam puts into the Golfers of Maine man
ufacturers. At Mechanic Falls all the
paper Tor the millions and millions of
postage stamps used in the United states
every month is manufactured. The com
pany began its contract July ], 1906. hay
ing underbidden other mills. The contract
expires July T. 1907.
Once month, and sometimes oftener, I
a requisition is received for !, O00, 600 sheets /
OF paper Each sheet viii make 3a 4
stamps. The sheets are lSl5 by 20st inch
Is ana of the best quality Of paper turn /
ed out OF the mill II is made Of spruce
and soda pulp.
Each sheet is marked with the letters /
L. 5. + S. Omitted States Postage +
stamps running lensthwise. The Dan /.
dy Roll, used TO make these letters, is T
the property Of the United States gov
eminent. and must be given up at the
expiration Of the cogtract. This roll OF
brass wire is 80 inchest long. The marks
are MADE by the heavy raised letters of /
metal placed at equal intervals on the /
surface. The paper is made IN rolls weigh /
ing 200 pounds and the width of "A inches
is divided four times into sheets as
specified above.
Marking the sheets.
The next step is to mark the sheets so
that the workmen in Washington shall +
have no trouble in keeping them right
side up, E. e., with all the letters upright
and running in vertical lines from top to
bottom. For this part of the work the
sheets are very carefully piled with the
edges exactly together. and just as they
are to be handled in Washington.
Then comes the sorting process. for
none but the perfect sheets is accepted
by Uncle sam. This work is done by girls
who handle each sheet separately. hold
ing il up and looking through it toward
the light. by which means thin places ana
other defects are quickly discernible The
rejected sheets are thrown upon the floor
and one hand is kept busy raking them
together and gathering them up 10 be
returned TO the pulp room 20 be reground
From start 20 finish the work requires
the greatest care and precision for there
must not be single defect in a single
sheet sent TO Washington where the
printing, cumming, and perforating are