Evening star., 1912-07-21

division of supplies of the Post Office
Department, while the customers are all
the post offices that Uncle Sam has es-
ia ablished throughout his domain. The
orders are the acquisitions constantly
flooding the division for the supplies with
which the post offices are kept running,
all the way from writing fluid. pens and
pencils. up to the ella borate blank forms
used by the government in the postal
system. The division is located at 1st
and X streets northeast.
To maintain such a depot as this means
that all the supplies shipped from this
point must be kept on hand in large ouan-
titles. such quantities. in fact. that seem
appalling to the ordinary person used to
supplying only his own desk. For eX-
ample. the amount of writing fluid sent
ont from this point in one year totaled
10000 gallons. while 5000 gallons of muci-
lage were shipped. During the same
period 10000 pounds of canceling ink
and $4,000 stamp pads found their way
to the various post offices scattered far
and wide over this country. Nor is that
all, for the list of articles such as these
Includes 10000 sheets of blottins paper.
C9.CW lead pencils, 1.0OO.GOJ lead scales,
1.nU,0go straps for letter and rural mail
carriers. 2.70nOOO pounds. or ninety car
loads, of twine: 3,O001O steel pens, t.
LOCO ooo,ooo, or eighty carloads. of facing
slips
The facts when presented in such
tabloid form can give only vague idea
of the real enormity of this
Miles of division. \ better idea can
r. be obtained by taking one
A"AAe' item, that of twine for in
stance. and dealing a little more fully
with it. The amount used in one year
was 100000 pounds. That means 2.OO,-
100000 yards or 1885 .363-odd miles of
twine, which is enough to encircle the
globe almost forty-six times. But there
is even more than this in connection with
the twine used for tying packages Of
letters. The kind of twine used is jute.
the raw product coming from India. An
important fact which has to be taken
into consideration Is it's production. as it
has an important relation to the time of
buying in this country. The planting is
done late in March, and the harvesting
begun the latter part of June. If the
crops are good the price will be corre-
spondingly lower, or vice versa. ana Oh
this account a careful survey OF the mar
ket mas to be maintained in order to Sc
twine is paid for on weight basis. and
the following system employed: Inas-
much as jute readily takes up moisture.
of which it can absorb p per cent of Its
own weight without detection except IN
chemical laboratories, samples are taken
from the bales at the factory of the con-
tractor under the supervision of an agent
of the department. These balls are weigh
ed Immediately upon being taken from
the bales, the weight of the sample balls
-, <irrLt - he
being certified to the department by the
agent The same sample balls are then
sent to this city. where they are tested
at the bureau of chemistry and the bu-
reau of standards. The test consists or
keeping them a certain length of time
in a room having a certain constant hui
midity, where the twine adapts itself to
normal moisture conditions. When the
test is completed the balls are weighed,
and comparison Of the two tables or
weights furnishes the basis upon which
the entire shipment is paid for. The
amount paid annually for twine reaches
almost s2OO,GOc.
The multiplicity of detail in connection
with the single item of twine is true to
large extent of the
Distributing whole of the work done
by the division Of supplies.
OeAIeAS. The greatest problem lies
in finding the safest, quickest and at the
same time most reasonable way of ship
ping the supplies to the various points.
One way in which this is being done is
by sending much of the material by
freight This is accomplished by designat-
ing one post office, usually a large one.
as distribut point for the smaller
iac
to this office by freight and reshipped to
their final destination by mail. Still an
other method is having the various con-
tractors ship such material as they can
direct to the point of final destination in
stead of bringing it to Washington and
then reshipping 1t. Each post office Is
supposed to send in requis.tion for sup
plies once every three months. In order
not to have the entire GO.nD orders COM
.ng at the same time. different months
are designated. Upon the size of the
post office, of course, depends the size
of the material shipped Sometimes 1t
can be contained in crate along with
considerable other material. while In the
case of the New York city post office 1t
usually takes three freight cars each
time.
The one dominant characteristic of the
entire division Is the extent of the work
being done. The building itself contains
30, ,OGO square feet of space. with q storing
capacity of 80 pounds to the square
foot. This same idea OF size is carried
out in the matter of elevators, each of
the two freight carriers being larger than
many so-called large rooms in an apart
mcnt house Yet eighty-five trained en-
ployes are able to transact ali the busi-
ness of the division.
OF the SIX stories occupied by the sup
ply division the most important is the
fourth. as it is on this
Tlme-SaVlng floor that all the ma
A, terial shipped from the
0PpA1oASeS' building is packed. Here
the most ur-to-date appliances have been
brought to bear in order to simplify the
work. Two examples of this are the
trucks used to bring the supplies down
from the storeroom floors. A platform
is used for placing the supplies on, and
under this is slipped the truck. BY press
ing a lever the platform is raised above
the truck wheels and can then be taken
wherever desired. In the same way the
platform can be lowered and the truck
of constant unpacking. The boxes used
come knocked down. thus saving
freight and space, they are put to-
gether when to be used.
The fourth floor is divided into a series
of shelves running practically the entire
length of the building. These are divid-
ed and numbered. and contain the va
rous supplies used in the postal service.
When a requisition comes in from any
post office it Is reviewed at the executive
offices on the fifth floor, and then sent to
the fourth to be filled. All supplies are