How Was The Grilling Of Stamps Done?

I was thinking about plating today and wondered if you could plate a grilled stamp of your choosing would all the stamps' grills be in the same orientation on each stamp from that particular pane? Maybe I cant describe what I mean but if it makes sense to you then perhaps a little insight or discussion could be had here? Thank you -Jeffrey

Sometimes they were made to sit in a chair, tied up and a bright light was shone on them. But only rarely did the stamp talk.........+]

This is a good question that has no definitive answer, Jeff. No one in our lifetime has ever seen one, nor has one ever been photographed or drawn.

A guy by the name of Steele patented the machine but he never gave specific instructions on how to build one.

Lester Brookman made as good a guess as anyone in his book "Postage stamps of the 19th century" Volume II - He even drew up prints showing how he would have made the machine based on Steele's patent - but it was only a "best guess".

This question is still unanswered!

Brian... very true... but they were all very quick to show their papers...

Randall

There was recently a thread ( https://goscf.com/t/32177&SearchTer...rill,revenue ) that mentioned the cancelation of revenue stamps by some sort of machine that puts grill like holes into the stamp and document I guess. Maybe it also was one of the machines you are talking about?

The revenues were cancelled with a roller or punch type cancel device, something either similar to the machines used years ago when one used a credit card, or the machines used to punch RR and other tickets with a datestamp. Each was done individually as the stamps were used.
Grills were done in full sheets as part of the production process, so the device used would have been very different. Supposedly grills were done several sheets stacked up at a time, which is why some are very faint while others are strong.

John N.Luff describes the process of making a grill roller as follows;
" The grill is produced by a roller, and not, as is generally supposed, by a plate. To make this roller, a cylinder of soft steel is placed in a turning lathe and a knurl pressed firmly against it. A knurl, it may be explained, is a small steel wheel which is fitted in a clamp and has its rim covered with small pyramidal bosses. As the cylinder slowly revolves in the lathe the bosses of the knurl are forced into it and produce on its surface similar protuberances and depressions. When finished the entire surface of the roller is covered with tiny pyramids which form a continuous spiral around it. If, while in this shape, it is applied to stamps the variety known as 'grilled all over' will result. If, however, it is desired to produce the small rectangled grills it is only necessary to plane off a sufficent number of rows of points, in vertical and horizontal bands.

When in use, the roller rests above a bed of sheet lead into which it points press corresponding depressions. When a sheet of stamps is laid upon thisbed and passed beneath the roller the paper is forced into the depressions and embossing is produced."

From Mr. Luff's description, it sounds like the stamps were printed first and later grilled, which require another dampening of the paper,then run the pressured roller encouraging further distortion of the sheet of wet stamp paper. Possibly why we get the variety of grills, split, doubled, quadrupled. And now lets try to speed this process up by stacking mutible sheet of stamps onto a lead bead of embossings. Nope, don't think we could use grills to plate a stamp. Way too many varibles.

For those who might not be aware, from about 1890 until his death in 1938 John N.Luff was generally considered the most knowledgeable man in the world on U.S. stamps.

Funny first part and fascinating second part! I couldn't put Brookmans down over dinner last evening. I am very familiar with the metal lathe and know exactly what a knurl and a knurler is so that only made it more fascinating! What a shame this was never figured out exactly especially since philately has existed since there was stamps to collect! (Some would argue earlier) I wonder if it was a trade secret or well, who knows? (Now every time I use a comma in a sentence I feel stupid Thank you IkeyPikey's sister lol) from the J.S. dials thread? ;)

Because the grilling cylinder was made using a lathe or screw machine to scribe in the direction of the cylinder and then scribe across the cylinder. The orientation of the grill points was determined by the order of scribing. The ungrilled areas were burnished off. It should be noted that the part or half rows seen above and below C, D, E and F grills were a result of the vertical drift around the cylinder. Only the Z grill had partial side rows, suggesting that the grills were oriented in the direction of the cylinder instead of at right angles to the cylinder. Except for Z grills, the grilling cylinder would have been rolled sideways across gummed sheets of 200 stamps before perforating.

Clark

Brookman originally wrote this in 1940 for the APS titled "Notes on the grilled issues of the United States" and republished it again in 1947 in "The 19th century stamps of the United States".





I don't mean this to sound confrontational, but I would love to know - Has some new information come to light since Brookman's work that can positively state what you have written, Clark? I am relatively new to the study of grills and am interested in reading more ...

Brian

Very good one.


-IBFS

I am not sure the information was ever not there. While some specific details of the equipment have been lost, enough examples of grilled multiples exist to show drift consistent with the screw machine hypothesis. Some reverse engineering can rule out a number of hypothesis including using a flat plate to press the grill or grilling a stack of sheets. A major exhibitor from the Chicago area has ample evidence in his exhibit or supporting material. While Brookman is a useful reference, the books badly need updating. As I understand it, the United States Philatelic Classics Society now has the rights to the books and is undertaking a project to update them. Brookman does not reference the American Bank Note Company hard paper printings, even though reported in 1920 or before.

Clark