In my last letter I mentioned certain difficulties I was having in arriving at an understanding of the accepted classification of the perforations of the early Perkins Bacon St. Vincent stamps. I see from the last Bulletin that other members are having the same difficulty and I am very glad to be able to say that I have made some progress in elucidating the position. The difficulty which I, and I take it a number of other members, have been in was that the present classification did not agree with that worked out by Napier and Bacon in the St. Vincent handbook published in 1895. I have recently been able to study a copy of the Napier and Bacon handbook on Grenada which throws a great deal of light on the subject, since it gives a detailed account of the methods adopted by Perkins Bacon for perforation and makes the categorical statement that their classification in their prior St. Vincent handbook was wrong. The abbreviated history could, I think, be put as follows : -
All the St. Vincent stamps printed by Perkins Bacon were perforated on one of two machines, commonly known as the A machine and the B machine. These were both single line machines of a somewhat elementary design in which the perforating pins, which were small fiat-headed punches, descended through the paper, into a corresponding line of holes drilled in a steel plate. When new, in the form known as A.1., this machine produced a comparatively clean cut perforation varying between 14 and 16½ owing to the unequal spacing of the pins. After some time, however, the small pieces cut out of the paper filled up the holes in the steel plate and the perforation gradually became less clean cut and eventually became very rough indeed. In this rough state the perforation was called by Napier and Bacon A:2. The first issue of St: Vincent was perforated while this machine was in its intermediate state. According to Napier and Bacon this machine was retained in use, producing a very rough perforation, until 1872 and although it received minor attention during this period, nothing was done to it which in any way modified the perforation. In June 1872, however, the machine was thoroughly overhauled and re-built. In its new form, known as A.3. the gauge was more regular and, while varying between 14½ and 15½, was generally found to measure about 15 The pins of this machine were apparently rather more pointed so that the paper is not entirely removed. The second machine which is known as the B machine, worked on exactly the same principle as the A machine and behaved in a similar way. The pins were very irregularly placed and the gauge, therefore, varied at different, parts of the line between 11 and 12. I am sure that the trouble in most members' minds over this problem is due to the fact that the original Napier and Bacon St. Vincent handbook was in error in this matter.