These make a very small proportion of the really interesting and valuable reports issued yearly by the Government.
When we remember that many of these works are accompanied by copious maps and illustrations, and that the processes of photolithographing, lithographing and engraving are all executed within these walls, you can form some estimate of the value of its services to the country.
The demands made upon it by each single department of the Government is immense. The Post-Office will send in a single order for the printing of one million money-orders; and the other departments cry out to have their wants supplied in the same proportion.
The Stereotype Foundry, under the same roof, long ago vindicated itself in the facts of convenience and economy. The following is a correct exhibit of the product of its labor for the year ending September 30, 1872:
| Value of plates, &c., manufactured, at trade-prices, | $35,371 08 |
| Amount expended for labor and material consumed, | 16,516 80 |
| Net saving to the Government, | $18,854 28 |
The Government Printing-Office, from an external view, is a large, long, plain brick building of four stories, with a cupola in the centre, and flag-staffs at either end, from which the National banner floats on gala days. If we enter from H street, a large open door on the side reveals to us at once the power-press room, with its wheels and belts; its women-workers and its mighty engine. This engine of eighty-horse power, swings its giant lever to and fro, with the accuracy of a chronometer. The boiler which supplies its steam-power is placed in a separate building, so that in case of explosion the danger to human life would be lessened. This boiler also supplies steam for heating the entire main building, and for propelling a “donkey engine,” which performs the more menial labor of pumping water.
This is not only the largest, but is one of the model printing-houses of the world. Its typographical arrangements are perfect, and in each department it is supplied with every appliance of ingenious and exquisite mechanism to save human muscle and to aid human labor. In the press-room, stretching before and on either side of the majestic engine, we see scores of ponderous presses, their swiftly-flying rollers moving with the perfect time of a watch—at each revolution clinching the unsullied sheet of paper which, in an instant more, it tosses forth a printed page.
When Benjamin Franklin tugged away at the little printing-press now exhibited at the Patent-Office, an enormous amount of human muscle was needed to perform press-work; but now, without effort and without fatigue, the tireless engine supplies the material power, while women do the work. On the lower floor of the main building we find the wetting room, filled with troughs and all the liquids for dampening the immense supply of paper, beside the hydraulic presses for smoothing it. On this floor also is the “ink room,” with its vast supplies of “lamp-black and oil” always ready for the rollers.
Ascending to the second story we come to the business and private offices of the Government Printer—his clerks, telegraph-operators, copy-holders, and proof-readers. Mr. A. M. Clapp, a man of clear intellectual out-look, of benign expression and venerable years, occupies a pleasant parlor for an office, furnished with plain desk, chairs, a mirror, engravings and a Brussels’ carpet; it opens into a suite of rooms occupied by the Chief-Clerk, the Paymaster and the Telegraph-Operator.
On the other side of the hall, we pass the open door of the proof-reading room. This is comfortably filled with men, young and old. The copy-holder and the proof-reader sit side by side, before a table or desk. The copy-holder has in his hands the original manuscript, from which he slowly reads, while the proof-reader listens, proof-sheets and pencil in hand, erasing each error in print as he detects it, from the lips of the copy-holder. The proof-reader is paid $26, the copy-holder $24 per week.