Many, many years ago I had a student job with a small company doing industrial document finish, enveloping, and large-scale mailings. Apart from a still eaily i

Many, many years ago I had a student job with a small company doing industrial document finish, enveloping, and large-scale mailings. Apart from a still eaily induced paper eczema, the one thing I took with me was a rather comprehensive facility with the black magic of paper handling. Not an ounce of explicit science in it, but an awful lot of feel: When and how much to air and flex; where a grounded length of copper wire could work wonders; how much or how little moistening to apply, and where; how too touch the stream of paper and somehow know by the feel of the tip of your finger whether something would probably jam within a minute, and which tiny speed-adjustment up or down would probably forestall the disaster; when to to loosen or tighten this or that set of rollers because nightshift and the air getting cooler et cetera et cetera. To this day I never just bang a fresh stack of paper in the printer tray. The full gymnastics of airing, flexing, feeling, airing and flexing again. I'm often laughed at. But my papers never jam!