MAKING POSTAGE STAMPS IN AMERICA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2810, 22 January 1908, Page 87

MAKING POSTAGE STAMPS IN AMERICA.

(Prank H. Sweet, in the New York *, -jr- r- „ Yrjjjyjjg Magazine.) Of late years,' the United States haa dropped into the fashion of changing the designs of. its mailing franks more frequently "than almost any other nation, and gradually the first Republic of the -New World has come to the proud position' of possessing .postage stamps that are more artistic than those sent out from .any.. other country. "H' is not -easy to understand what an immense amount of work is required by the advent of new styles in this "postal currency. What with the 'men who manufacture the paper, the two or three thousand men and women who assist in printing and gumming the stamps, the toilers : who help in transporting the new pwv ! ducts to the printing presses, and the 80,000 postmasters and 1 clerks, who sell the stamps to the public, it is estimated that fully 100,000 persons have a hand in preparing for a postage stamp "opening." For upwards of a decade the. national Government has been printing its own postage stamps ; that is, the- work has the big. institution at Washington, known ac the Bureajw of Printing and Engraving, whicfi is a branch] of the Treasury Department, and designed primaTily^iar the printing of national currency ; but the gigantic task may at any time revert to private individuals oi a corporation,' if a disposition is shown to do the work cheaper than the Government can do it. Everyiyear .the Post Office Department advertises for bids for .furnishing the postage stamps, and the Treasury Depart- | ment'Btibmits a proposition in: exactly the I same maiiner as the* oilier bia<J«rs ; b«* the plant of the big money factory at the national capital is so perfectly equipped that the manufacture of stamps can be carried on at a cost of less than 5c a thousand, and apparently the bank note ' companies which formerly supplied stamps have concluded that there would be no profit in^the transaction at such a price. Engraving, the plates which are used in'the ""pi'oauction of postage stamps is a delicate operation. Perhaps a dozen different engravers, each an expert in his particular line., contributes to * design for a sfctmpHhat is not an inch square. One supplies the vignette, a. second cute the | delicate scroll work, a third furnishes tho artistic lettering, and so on. ' The original plate bearing a- stamp e'e-' sicni, although baked until it is almost as hard as a diamond, is~ never employed -in' the* actual printing. It is much too pre« cious for that, since, were it destroyed, it would, in all probability, be impossible to engrave a new plate that would be an <jexae&->dunlicaie,in every detail. Accordingly the original plate constitutes ai steel die, with which impressions are made on soft steel, " and these latter, f termed .replicas, are uged, after hardening, 'for 4 '"the* actual printing. ' Postage stamps are printed in 6heets of 400, and all the printing is done in an immense room known as the beehive, containing over 300 hand presses, each' requiring for its manipulation the services of two operators, one, an- expert 1 plate printer,, and the other his woman assistant, whese duty it is to Jeed to the press the blank sheets of paper and remove them after they receive, the impression. v The ink is applied by means of a! hand roller, and inasmuch as the varied! hues inevitably tinge the hands and faces and clothing of the workers, the immense pressroom presents a picturesque spectacle, of kaleidoscopic colour. _ Gumming the stamps 's an important; process, and those persons who never, moisten a postage stamp without momenrtarv "uneasiness regarding' the possibl* liS^eace'df germs oi other evils,- would doubtless be reassured could they,reahsa the many precautions surrounding the .preparation and' application of the Gt^ickj^. Htuff^mosfe- familiar to the America* tongue. The gumming is done by -an electrical machine, and each sheet of stamps, after receiving the baptism OS mucila<*e, is carried by an endless chain,operating like a miniature moving side, walk, : though a wooden tunnel, where the-'teinpexature is 130deg Fa-hT., and fronx which the sheets emerge with the mucw ' the different conditions of thrf seasons of the year,, the quality of gunj is changed quarterly, in winter soft gum is used; while in summer a harder gradj is applied to the postage stamps; and it is highly important always to keep sharp watch on the mucilage to insure t quality least likely to cause the sheet* to stick together by reason ,of the damp* ness,' in the atmosphere, - i ' ?-The mucilage is prepared! in accordance with a time-honoTwedl formula, ana ton boiling the strange concoction there a*ff installed in the basement of the Bureanl of Engraving three giaat kettles, each ol which will hold fully lOOgal. i] If .placed end to end, the stamp* printed foi the use of tibej Aiaerioaa peopb eact year would! girdle the giohj^ nearly four times. Under normal, cond& ttons' httoraen 10 million aad 20 million gLsuncs aft granted at the bjuHing durina

—In China all tho land belongs to the j otale. The a\erage rent is half a crown per acre. The soil of the Yangtze Valley is so rich that a square mile !6 capab'e of supporting 3840 person*

— At sea-le-\el, water boils at 212deg. F. ; at a height of 10.000 ft at 193deor. a. When Darwin crossed the Andes in 1835 he boiled potatoes for thre© hours without making ♦-hem soft.

an ordinary working day of eight hours, but under the stress of unusual conditions, when the great print shop has been ill operation night and day, an average of over 40 million stamps has been produced every 24 hours. Inasmuch ss the average consumption of stamps at the present time is about 16 million a day, the bureau can usually more than keep pace with the transient demand ; but the law requires that there shall be kept on hand in the storage vaults at the Bureau 100 million lc stamps and twice as many of the 2c denomination, and some care is required to see to it that this measure is not depleted. J The same manifold precautions surround j the manufacture of postage stamps that characterise the printing of currency. Each sheet of stamps is counted dozens of times during the process of manufacture, and if a single sheet is missing when the hour arrives for ceasing work, every employee of the division where it has disappeared is compelled to remain in the building until the misplaced bit of paper is found. At night the plates from which the stamps are printed are carefully checked off and locked up in great vaults fitted with time locks, the doors of which cannot be opened the next morning unless all three of the men in charge are present, it being necessary for each to manipulate a lock of which he alone j knows the combination. When an old issue of postage stamps is retired 'and a new series comes to take its place, there is a great conflagration • i-i a specially-prepared furnace m the basement of the general post-office at Washington; for here all the left-over stamps are cremated. Many preluni-* naries are' gone through with before the burning can take place. _ The chief task is, of course; the accounting. Uncle Sam maintain a book-keeping account with every postmaster in his setvice, and when an issue of stamps is called :n: n f<* retirement, every bit of paper received at the postal headquarters must be counted and credited to the postmaster who returned it. Occasionally the Government finds itself with a heavy stock of superannuated stamps on hand and no chance to get,nd of them. Thus, after the close of the Pan-American Exposition the condemned stamps which had been issued in commemoration of that show, but remained unsold and were ted to the flames, had a face value of ovei a million dollars. _ AN AFRICAN EXPLORER, 2500 B.C. About the year 2500 B.C. a prince of Elephantine named Herkhuf made up his min-d to) penetrate farther towards the mysterious lands of the south, a writer in Blaekwood's for December says. It is W otHrturiea since he set out over the desert, with the wind whistling past his ears and the powerful sun warming his bones and his heart within him; yet the story ot his adventures may still be read, the path, by which he travelled may still be discerned, and the names of his captains may •till be seen on the rocks of the land of Arthet. Herkhuf, having obtained the necessary order from the Pnaioah, set oui/ with his father Ara, "in order," as he sajs, "to explore a road to the country of A am." Tne road which he explored and opened up was probably a continuation of the route from Elephantine to Arthet, passing not far back from the river, and descending to the water between Abu Simbel and Wady Haifa in the heart of the land of Aam. The expedition was entirely successful, and Herkhuf states that he was "very greatly praised for it." Emboldened by the fame which his enterprises brought him, he made a isiecond expedition to Aam, and was gone from Egypt eight months. A third excursion was more adventurous. Herkhuf set out upon the "Oasis road," which runs from a point north of Aswan to Kurkur Oasis, and thenc« branches to Tomas, or Arthet, and to the Oasis of Khargeh, which lies westward, and which in those days was inhabited by Libyan tribes. At the Kurkur junction Herkhuf met with an army under the leadership of the Prince of Aam, which was on its way to chastise these Libyans ; but how the wily Egyptian contrived to u«} it instead as an escort to hie own men back to Aam, and how he returned to Egypt through the hostile territory of Sethu, Arthet, and Wawat, with 300 asses laden with the presents of his host, are tales too long to narrate here. During a fourth expedition to Aam Herkhuf had managed to obtain one of the dwarfs or pigmies who inhabited a region of the Land of the Ghosts v He at once informed the king, now the boy Pepy 11, and in reply he received the following letter, which is, perhtms, the earliest example in the world's history of a private communication : — "I have noted," writes the King, "the matter of your letter which you have^sent me, in order that I might know that you have returned ■in safety from the land of Aam with the army which was with you. . . . returned in safety from the land of Aam with the army which was with you. . . . You say in your letter that you have brought a dancing pigmy of the god from the Land of the Ghosts, like the pigmy which the Treasurer Raurded brought from iue Land of Pount in the time of Asesa. You &ay to my Majesty, 'Never before has one like him been brought by anyone who has visited Aam.' . . . Come northward, therefore, to the Court immediately, and bring this pigmy with you, which you must bring living, prosperous, and healthy, from the Land of the Ghosts, to dance for the King and to rejoice and gladden the heart of the King. When he goes down with you into the vessel, appoint trustworthy people to be beside him at either side of the vessel ; take care that he does not fall into the water. When lie sleeps at night appoint trustworthy people who shall sleep beside him in his cabin ; and make an inspection 10 times each night. My Majesty desires to see this pigmy more than" the gifts of Sinai and of Pount. If you arrive at Court. 1

the pigmy being with you alive, prosperous, and healthy, my Majesty will do for you a greater thing than that which was done for the Treasurer Baurded in the lime of Aspsa, according to the 1 * heart's desire of my Majesty to see this pigmy. Orders have been gent to the chief of the New Towns to arrange that food shall be taken from every store city, and every temple (on the road) without stinting." j