Evening star., 1912-09-15

| Through constant familiarity. that little
| commodity, the postal card has become
| commonplace as not to
| A Billion receive q passing thought
| w. from the majority of people
AooA' who use it az a means Of
| transmitting small messages. The postal
card. nevertheless, figures to a consider
| able extent in the scheme Of things gov
ernmental. and it's production is by no
means a trivial matter.
Until about three years ago the postal
cards used in this country We're printed
by outside printing firms under contract
At that time. however, Uncle Sam began
to do his own work in this connection.
and the government printing office was
called in to produce results.
Annually the American people consume
almost billion of these otlong pieces Of
| cardboard. the work of producing them
requiring a special force and special ma
chinery at the government printing office.
-Four different kinds OF postal cards are
printed. three in red and one in green
Three of these kinds are of one size, that
most commonly seen. 81, by 81 inches.
The other size. the Lin colin card, is
slightly smaller. and was made thus for
the purpose of fitting into standard index
filing cases-the intention being to make
which could be filed without the neces-
| sity OF rewriting. The postal card which
| Is more commonly used than any other
| is the Mckinley card. The heads OF
George and Martha Washington are used
on the reply postal card. Martha Wash
| ingtCn's head appearing OH the card for
reply purposes. The other card printed is
the international, or two-cent, postal card,
and has Grants head on 1t.
| In considering the making OF postal
| cards the first thing which impresses
| one is the care that is
Great Care taken. Unlike the bureau
r.L Of engraving and printing.
where all otter postal sup
plies having an actual money value when
complete are printed. the government
printing Office is equipped with no steel
| cages or iron-barred windows. And yet
the work is done in such way that the
| postal cards are perfectly secure from
the grasp of any one desiring to steal
them. One of the ways in which this
safety is maintained is by not admitting
visitors into the room where they are be-
ing printed. Visitors are, in fact less
welcome here than in almost any gov
ernment bureau and it is only with the
personal escort Of Public Printer DON
nelly that the postal card room can be
visited.
When it is realized that each day $500,
600 postal cards can be printed. the
equipment and force seem small. Only
two printing machines are used. while
less than forty people are employed in
ALL The term machine is more accurate
in this instance than the word press
would be. because the apparatus is more
nd fhn
1.OO-pOund roll of cardboa rd enters and
passes under the cylinder, which with
| each revolution makes ninety-six impress
sions and has a capacity of sixty revOlu-
tions a minute. After the cardboard has
passed the printing cylinder and has re-
ceived the impression. it runs to a series
of knives. which cut it into eight parts
the cylinder having width of eight inn
pressions. Four of these ribbons run
down to series of knives again which
cut them into separate cards, while the
other four are similarly cut by another
set of knives. The reason for dividing the
work in this manner is that by the meth
cd employed all eight ribbons do not leave
the machine at once, instead they are
dropped out by fours.
4 i
Connected with each set of knives is a
device which causes set of fingers to
drop each time fifty
Counted by cards have been cut.
r.c.. thereby causing the ma
1AsSS' chine to deposit the cards
| in four neat little piles Of fifty each. An
other device for binding these separate
piles together is also connected with the
machine. but is not used. Instead girls are
| employed for this work. eight being at
each machine, four binding the cards
fboo IN,
500 to a box. With two machines. each
with eight girls and two pressmen. it
can be seen that the 100000 postal
cards can be turned out in one day by
| twenty people. To do that the girls be-
come experts in catching up the little
piles of cards as they drop before them.
| and they not only keep up with the work.
| but do so with perfect ease. Many of
| the girls connected with producing post
al cards here were similarly employed In
| Maine and the other places where the
| cards were printed before the government
| took over their production. having been
| installed in the printing ONCE after a
| civil service examination.
The postal cards are shipped from the
| printing office direct to their final desti-
nations. Two methods are employed. For
transportation by water they are packed
| in wooden boxes. while for inland trans
l
strawboard cartons. The cards come from
| the machines in piles of fifty, which are
| bound, and then placed in a cardboard
| carton which contains ten such piles. The
| size of the order to be filed determines to
| certain extent the way they are packed
| after that. but ordinarily they are packed
| 10000 to box.
| The majority of people fail to realize
the Importance of the post card. especially
| In connection with the role it
Storage plays in the business world.
| - 4 visit to the postal card
| storeroom. however. changes
| this attitude. Piled high in a long row
| stand several hundred boxes, long, wide,
| but shallow These in no way resemble
| the other boxes Of postal cards, yet that
| Is what they contain. In these boxes the
postal cards are packed in uncut sheets.
! forty-eight on each. box containing
| 1900 cards. This method is employed
| for the convenience of large business
| houses, a mail order establishment, for
| example, that uses thousands of postal
cards annually. BY securing the cards
| in this manner they can be sent to the
printer and turned into a printed blank,