The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1914-12-28
THE HAsKIN LETTER
The Bureau Of Engraving & Printing
H.--How Stamps and Money are Made
By Ercderiek J. HasIkin.

It is safe to say that few persons,
with the exception Of stamp collectors,
could describe the designs upon any
three United States postage stamps,
and that still fewer have any apprec-
iation Of their artistic value. Yet the
designs upon our postage stamps, and
also those upon all sof our national
paper currency, are the work OF some
of the most skilled practitioners in
the world Of the art OF engraving
upon steel. Formerly Of the greatest
importance because it was the only
way OF reproducing pictures in the
press, engraving has now been large
ly superseded by cheap mechanical
processes, and the best engrayers fni
almost their only. employment in such
work as that required by our govern
ment.
The place where these designs
originate is a spacious and brilliantly
lighted room In. the new building Of
the Bureau OF Engraving and Print
ing, under the shadow Of the Wash
ington monument The Offices of the
superintendent of the department and
of the official designer, who makes
the drawings, open upon this main
room. Down one side OF 1t is long
row Of massive desks, each having q
slanting roof OF its own, set with q
groundless pane, So that the light
which falls upon top of the desk Is
soft and uniform. At each OF these
desks sits an engrayer, bent over his
a ,hr,1I Oh I'D
one of nothing SO much as OF pictures
of medieval monks at work upon
Illuminated manuscripts. In the midst
of humming factory with tre-
mendous output, this one room has an
atmosphere Of serene and time-defying
patience, which seems to belong to
another day, as indeed does the art
which is practiced there. The modern
world Of hurry and quick results
might well take a lesson from those
precise and patient toilers, who work
from four to eight months upon the
space Of single postage stamp, carv-
ing with the free hand designs as fine
and intricate as the tracery of veins
in the wing Of a beetle.
The engraving IS done upon plates
OF annealed steel with a finely tenn
pered tool. No one man completes a
design. The workers are classified as
portrait. script, square letter and
ornamental engravers, and each is
confined to his specially, in which he
has the highest Imaginable skill.
The completed plate for a stamp
or bill is hardened, and a disk of soft
steel is run over 1t under high me-
\ chanical pressure, producing a bas-
relief of the design. This, in turn, is
also hardened. and by the same me-
chaRical pressure, an exact replica OF
the original design Is impressed upon
another plate of soft steel, which, after
being properly tempered is used for
the actual printing. Thus the design
may be reproduced q great many
times without having resource to the
original which was engraved by hand
/ stamp has been made by hand but
once, although great many Of the
pilates have been worn out by the mil
lions and millions Of printing which
have been necessary. Both these proc
esses and those used in printing are
practically identical for stamps and
bills.
The paper upon which they arc
printed is made by private firms under
government supervision. 1t reaches
the bureau sealed. and all of it is care
fully receipted and accounted for.
certain amount Of paper Is issued for
each printing, and If any Of this is
lost, the employees of the department
where it disappears are compelled to
pay for 1t at its face value. This is
a necessary part CT the elaborate sys-
TEN by which the stamps and money
are safeguarded.
The paper first goes to the wetting
room, and when 1t has absorbed ex-
actly the right amount Of moisture. is
sent to the department where the
faces are printed. In the case Of
stamps, this is done upon what are
called "four plate power presses =
which simultaneously perform the
operations Of mixing the plates, wiping
OFF the superfiuous ink, polishing the
plates with chalk, and making the
I actual imp ession. The machine re-
lsquires only the services of a man who
polishes the plates with his hands as
they pass him, girl who lays the
sheets of paper upon the plates, and
another who takes them off.
When two hundred sheets have been
printed, they are counted and dried
and put through hydraulic press to
give them a smooth surface. They
are then gummed by being passed
under glass roller bathed in dex-
trine; and they then pass through a
machine which breaks the gum into
numerous little cracked particles, so
that the stamps will not curl. The
gummed stamps are placed in dry
ing chamber; which does its work in
thirty seconds; they are then per
forated upon a rotary perforator, and
after being counted and packed, are
ready for shipment.
In the printing of bills there are
two complications of this process. In
the first place. they have to be printed
upon both sides, and in the second
place, at least two-fifths of the backs
are required by law to be printed on
hand presses, and all of the faces
must be printed in that way. This
peculiar law was passed by Congress