Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 September 1883 — MONEY-MAKING. [ARTICLE]

MONEY-MAKING.

A*H»ying, Weighing, Stumping. Cuncaving anti .Hilling— Where the ."Silver fotnet From. ( !M. (fund, ih Detroit Free I res*. I If you go into the mint nt New Orleans, as you certainly will if von visit the city, you will find a guard in the rotunda to receive visitors. The James brothers might have penetrated that far easy enough, but they could not have gone further. The barred gates rising tip between the visitor and Uncle Sam's store of silver dollars have a State’s prison look, and One is put on his good behavior at once. When your credentials are pronounced all right and gates unlocked to you, you are ushered into the receiving and weighing room. Silver bullion is corded up 6u all sides, and is being bandied with in much contempt as the brick-carrier loads his hod. A bar of bullion looks exactly like a liar of plumber's solder, and when you are about to pick up and walk off with one of the bars you suddenly change your mind. In .this room are the most perfect pair of large scales in America. They weigh up to 10,000 ounces Troy weight, and are so delicate that a crumb weighing the 500th part of an ounce will drop the bar. All the silver received is weighed upon these scales, and they are looked upon by the general visitor as one of tile sights of the institution. All the bullion first goes to the melting department and is melted, alloyed and run into ingots of standard fineness, .which means 000 parts of silver and 100 (’>arts of copper. The copper is put in o harden it, and without this alloy there would be a great loss by natural “wear and tear.'’ There is a new assay after melting, and the assay must prove that tlfe composition is exact and correct. The loss of even the 300th part of an ounce between the weighing and the melting rooms must be accounted; for. After the assay the ingots are turned over to the coiner, who rolls them into strips'by means of powerful machinery, these strips .are about three feet -long, and a little wider than a dollar. The thickness is designed to be the same as a dollar, but is sometimes too thick or too thin. The strips are then passed to the puncher, who, feeds them under his punch as fast as vonra-an count, and the smooth, greasy blank dollars fall into the box below." "To discover if the blanks are of the standard Weight they are w heeled into the adjusting room. The demand is for 4121 grains, but the Government permits a slight shortage. If the blank is one grain short, it is cast out to be remelted If it is one grain over weight a rile is used to secure exact weight. In the adjusting room are about two dozen women, each with a delicate pair of scales before her, and the blanks are handled with surprising dexterity. Those found of standard weight are sent on their wav through the mint.and the light ones will form parts of new iugots. You think of a silver dollar as a per-fectly-flat surface. Hold one to vour eye and you w ill see that it is concave. If The letters and ornaments were even with the rim of the dollar they would soon wear off. The concave is to protect them. From the adjusting-rcjpm blanks go to the machine to be concaved and then to the hath. The silver is greasy and blackened, and the bath is to remove this and restore the luster. After being treated to an acid bath, the trays filled with blanks are placed in a red-hot oven and subsequently placed in a revolving cylinder (with saw-dust. When they emerge (from this they shine like stars. 1 Here are the smooth, round pieces, and to make dollars of them they are sent to the stamp presses. These Dow erful machines feed themselves at (the rate of 285 per minute, and if you pick up one of the coins you will find lone side complete and the other side ptill blank. They .are picked up and fed to a second machine, and now your dollar is complete except on the edges. A smooth-edg<Hl coin would wear away faster than one w ith a milled edge, and jlicnee the larger denominations are milled. It is no use to try to guess how it is done, for forty-ninegout of (fifty persons would miss it. They are, dropped into a cavity in a powerful machine arranged to fit them, arid the s%fia^-#ftt :;:: squeezed t-he same as if a tube shut np on all sides of your finger at once. This mills the edges. Tile pressure on each dollar in stamping and punching, is about eighty tons:,his silver bullion the same as a private individual does for his vegetables. He agrees to take all the ore furnished by two large Colorado mines, and any supply which an individual may wish to dispose qf finds a ready sale. The mines ship by express at their own but in sending away money the Government pays all charges.