Show our postage stamps ta the method of printing till post stamps i t interesting tin the impression is taken froni frow steel plate on which stamps stamp are engraved and the paper used is ol 01 a i JIK peoliar pio liar texture somewhat rl 1119 11 I I employed abr bank now hotl I tw 11 men cover the plates plate i with ill alic colored inks and pass them thern to IL u i ffield a girl who print them athi i large rolling hand presses three I I of these e little squad squads tire employed i all the time tinie althou gli ten tc n can bo be put in operation if ne cessa ry the colors used in tho the inks are u air ultramarine marine blue prussian blue chrome yellow and prussian blue green vermillion and carmine after the sheets of paper on which the stamps arc are engraved have bave been dried they are sent into another room and gummed the gum used is made of the powder of dried ried potatoes and other vegetables tables mixed with water gum arable arabic is nut not desi desirable because it cracks the paper badly the sheets arc are gum um mud ined separately they a aro re placed back upward upon a flat wooden support the edges being protected by a met lie frame and and the gum is applied with a wido wide brush after having again been drieda this time on oil little racks rack q which aro are fanned by steam IO power ITel for about an hour they are put in between sheets of pasteboard and aud pressed in hydraulic pr presses ms s capable of applying a weight wei glit of 2000 tons the sheets sheets are next cut in bal halves vess each sheet of course when cut contains stamps this is dono by a girl with a la large pair of shears e cutting utting by hand hand be being ing preferred to that of machinery which method would destroy r y too many stamps they are then passed pas to the perforating machine the perforation i between the c stamps arc are effected by p passing ass the sheets between two cylinders provided provided avith a series of raked raised bands bands which arc are adjusted to a it distance apart equal to that required between the rows of perforations each ench ring on tho the upper cylinder has a series of cylindrical projections eions which fit corresponding depression depressions in the bands binds of the lower cylinder by these the perforations arc punched out ont and by a simple contrivance the sheet is detached from the linders in which it lias has been conducted by an in endless band the rows rt running inning longitudinally of the paper are nrc first made and then ilien by a similar machine the transverse ones this perforating machine was invented ind patented by mr arthur in 1852 and was purchased by the government for are next dressed lr sed once more inore and then packed and labeled and stowed away in in another room preparatory to b being put in mail bags for dispatching ii to fill orders if a single stamp iri is torn or in an any way mutilated the whole sheet of is burned five hundred thousand i arc are burned every week from th this is cause the arc are counted no less than 11 times during the process of manufacturing and so great is the caro care taken in counting that I not a single sheet has litus been lost during inc the past twenty years bobon herald |