Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 July 1894 — How Postage Stamps are Made [ARTICLE]

How Postage Stamps are Made

Every part of a postage stamp making is done by hand. The designs are engraved on steel—two hundred stamps on a smgle ‘ plate. These plates are inked by two men and then are printed by a girl and a man on a large band press. They are dried as fast a 3 printed and then gummed with a starch piste made from potatoes. This paste is dried by placing the sheet in a steam fanning machine, and then the stamps are subjected to a pressure of two thousand tons in a hydraulic press. Next the sheets are cut so that each one contains one hundred stamps, after which the paper between the stamps is perforated, and after being pressed, the sheets are taken away. If a sirg'e stamp is injured, the whole sheet is burned.