The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-08-14 00:00:00

GOLD LEAF MANUFACTURE,

The process of gold-beating is exceedingly interesting
in its various details, and is one which requires the
exercise of judgment, physical force, and mechanical
skill. The coin is first reduced in thickneis by being
rolled through what is called a mill, a machine consist-
ing of iron rollers operated by steam power. It is
then annealed by being subjected to intense heat,
which softens the metal, and next cut up and placed
in jars containing nitro-muriatic acid, which dissolves
the gold and reduces it to a mass resembling Indian
pudding, both in colour and form. This solution is
then placed in a jar with copperas, which stparates the
gold from the other components of the mass.
The next process is to properly alloy the now pure
gold, after which it is placed in crucibles and melted,
from which it is poured into iron moulds called ingots,
which measure ten inches; in length by one inch in
breadth and thickness. When cooled it is taken out
in the shape of bars, and then rolled out into what are
called ribbons, usually measuring about eight yards in
length, of the thickness of ordinary paper, and retaining
their original width. These ribbons are then cut into
pieces one and one-quarter inches square, and placed
in what is called a cutch, which consists of a
pack of French paper leaves resembling parch-
ment, each leaf three inches square, and the pack
measuring from three-quarters of an inch to
one inch in thickness. They are then beaten
for half an hour upon a granite block, with
hammers weighing from twelve to fifteen pounds,
after which they are taken out and placed in
another pack of leaves called a " shoder." These leaves
are four and a half inches square, and the gold in the
shoder is beaten four hours with hammers weighing
about nine pounds; after which the gold leaves are
taken out of the shoders and placed in what are called
molds. These molds consist of packs of leaves similar
to the other packs, and made of the stomach of an ox.
After being made ready in the molds, the gold is beaten
for four hours more with hammers weighing six or seven
pounds each.
The thinner the leaf becomes, the lighter are the
hammers used, and it is also necessary in beating the
gold, especially in striking the mold, that the blow
should be given with the full flat of the hammer and
directly in the middle of the mold. The leaf, after
being taken out of the mold, is cut into squares of
tbree and three-eights inches, and placed in books of
common paper. Each book consists of twenty-five
leaves, twenty books constitute what is known as a
pack.—lron Age.

[From Punch}
SOCIAL QUESTIONS.

Suggested for discussion at the Social Science Congress.
If you invite to your table the Wife of a Dean, and
the Niece of an Archbishop, which of them do you
hold entitled to precedence?
When the Girls and their Mamma remind you of your
promise to 14- t them give a ball, and instead of it you
offer them a visit to the Continent, are you justified
in mentally reserving to yourself the right to take
them to Boulogne one day, and back the next by
Calais?

If, when dining at the Club, you chance to come
across a dear old friend of yours, whom you have not
met for years, do you consider that the meeting may
be held as an excuse for your not going home till morn-
ing ?
When you take down a Lady who is an utter stranger
to you, and who replies in monosyllables to everything
you say, are you justified, before the- joint comes, in
leaving her to her fate, and offering your small talk to
your left-hand neighbour?
Supposing a young gentleman in the Civil Service
earns a salary (less Income-tax) of two hundred pounds
a year, to what expenditure per week ought he in pru-
dence to restrict himself in the way of (1) gloves, (2)
cigars, and (3) button-hole bouquets?

Is there any prospect of solving the vexed question,
whether the Rost or Hostess ought to lead the Way to
dinner?

When you are informed that the Doctor says the
children require change of air, and are told with the
same breath that Cook desires a holiday, and that your
study must be painted, what more proof do you re-
quire that the Season is at an end, and that you had
better make your mind up to leave Town within a
fortnight?
Weighed in the social scale, which is the lighter fib
—to say that you are indisposed, or that you are not at
home, when your dear friends the Boreingtons ex-
pressly call to see you?

When you are invited to dine at half-past seven—
the at being underlined with considerable emphasis—
do you think that punctual eight would really be con-
sidered premature for your arrival?
Is it possible for two Ladies of average acquirements
to converse with one another for upwards of five
minutes without talking of their balls, their babies, or
their bonnets?

If you happen to meet your friends the Swell.
boroughs in Town in the middle of September, how
much credit is attached the pretexts which you
mutually advance for being visible?

Supposing that a Gentleman accompany his Wife
upon a round of morning calls, and afterwards is
treated to a dinner of cold mutton, to what revenge
in the way of dining at his club is he socially entitled' •
Do you consider that an invitation to dine, which
has been declined go the plea of a previous engage-
ment, is gn equivaiEnt for a dinner which has actually
been eaten?

If, while travelling abroad, you chance to stumble
on your tailor, to whom you are in debt, is it wise to
greet him affably or to endeavour not to see him?
If you are asked to what you know will be a dismal
dinner, how many days do you consider you may wait
before replying, in the hope that something better may
prevent your acceptance?