Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1855-01-06

with q long handled ladle, say ten feet in length,
even Mt that distance turns to a most c%opperish
hue of complexion, and has to abandon the work
in a few hours for the rest Of the day. In an
hour or two the contents of the crucible can be
dipped out, and the molten mass roured into molds
by which it is shaped into bars OF about three hun
bred ounces each.
The gold is then returned to the vault Of the
mclter and refner, n cell some twelve feet square,
with two iron doors, secured by four locks, and
With granite walls, put together with cannon balls
inserted between the stones in such a manner rs to
defy the most ingenious and persevering burglar.
Four men are appointed to sentinel this depository
at night, and a similar provision is made for the
treasurer's vault, where the gold that has gone
through all the processes whick are appointed
for it is placed.
On entering this vault, we were not at first i'm
pressed with the appearance Of what was there
exhibited. But how much it expanded ones csti-
mate of what he saw, when he was informed that
that diminutive pile of golpen bricks was worth half
a million. There it lay, as Hood says
Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold!
Bright and yellow, hard and cold;
Molten, craven, hammered, and rolled
Heavy to get and light to hold
Hoarded, bartered, bought and sold
Stolen, borrowed, squandered, dOled
Spurred by the young, but Rugged by the old
To the very verge Of the churchyard mold;
Price of many n crime untold!
Gold Gold! Gold Goldl
Good or bad a thousand fold!
But to return to business. The gold is next to
be assayed-that is, to have its value and fneness
ascertained by a delicate chemical process, which
is performed in this wise: on each deposit-which
still retains with its gold the various impurities
with which it first came out OF the mine-two bars
are selected at random, and a small shaving of a
prescribed weight is cut from each. A pair of scales
is employed, SO delicate that the thousandth part
of a grain will turn it, to weigh them separately.
They are then wrapped round in a thin coating OF
lead, and having been put into little cups, called
cupels, made OF phosphate of lme-or, In English,
of burnt bonc-are subjected to an intense heat.
At once the lead melts, and uniting with the cop
per and other foreign ingredients of the gold, as
sists the oxydizing, and with them is absorbed into
the porous substance of the cup, leaving no sign,
except a dark stain, of its presence. But the gold
still shines out in the cup. inclosed by the triting
wash of silver, looking like a small button. To
seperate this it is placed on an anvil and fatten-
ed with a hammer to such n thinness as may make
it permeable to the nitric acid in which 1t must
now be immersed. A small long necked bottle
called a matrass, contains this fluid, into which he
drops the button. The bottle is heated over a fur
mace, and the acid completely absorbs the remain
ing alloy, leaving the gold perfectly pure, with
only q slight black covering of ~oxydized alloy,
which is removed by annealirg. The adhering
acids are then washed of, and all he has to do is
to re-weigh tne two shayings of gold and to ascer-
tain how much they have lost by the chemical chan
ges they have been put through. lie thus DIS,
covers what proportion OF pure ia 10 uht"iho
in a given part Of a deposit, and from this judges
Of the fneness and value of the deposit itself.
The owner then can receive its value In pure bars
Of other gold, and so on his way, resigning all
claim to the original quantity which he brought 10
the Office. The responsibility of the melter and
refner now begins. His business is merely that
of his predecessor, only on q less delicate ana
much larger scale, 1. e., to free the entire deposit
from alloy we see the workmen in the graduating
room sweating over seven large furnaces along the
Id. 80 ,,t;oa thnt tho cnmpni-HpDr of the uDart-
ment is covered, about two inches deep, with IRON
grating, through which small PARTICLES OF gold or
silver have been carelessly or unavoidably dropped
1t will not do to loose them. and So, at certain
periods. the floor is carefully swept, and the sweep
ings, dirt and all, with mems aprons, the discarded
cr1cibles, ladies, etc., are collected, burnt ground
and otherwise transformed, till a very considerable
revenue of precious metal is obtained thereffon
What it amounts to in the Assay Office has no
been definitely stated, but we were told that at tn
Mint in Philadelphia it came to the handsome fig
ure of $54,0 600 a year (enough. it properly applied
10 bless sc, 900 families with a years supply o
The ANT-SLAyERY BrGLEl.
The melting is now to be attended to. One hun
dred pounds Of silver to fifty of gold is placed i
each crucibie, the rule being two of the former t
one of the latter. After an hour and a quarte
the two are rendered fluid, and the mixed metal
poured into a large copper vessel containing col
water, TO which a rotatory motion is given. Til
~rctatory motion has the effect of preventing tn
solidifcation in a mass Of the metal, causing it tt
harden and sink to the bottom in the form of fake
or grains. Hence it is called the process of gran
ulation, and the mixed metal from the excess 0
silver in it's composition is called graduated saceT
3 1t is certainly beautifully white. looking like tn
oxydized silver that we see among the ornament
ola jewelers. window, as indeed it is the sam
thing. Nor only has il been melted itself, but
has facilitated the melting of the other alloys c
the gold, and after drawing them out and ming
ling with them, has completely incrusted the pur
yellow metal that is concealed in ii.
The metals are separated in the parting room
where the granuiated silver is carried. We fin
four rows Of eight porcelain pots, each with
capacity of from twenty to twenty-tour gallon
They are placed in troughs OF boiling salt water
and into each is turned one hundred and lift
pounds of the granulated or mixed metal, owe
which is poured as many pounds of nitric aci'
This aeid. uniting with the silver. forms a solutio
which is G allied nitrate Of silver, and the effect
such an alliance is to separate and sink the pul
gold to the bottom of the jar. The nitrate OF 81
Yer is then drawn of with a gold syphon-go
being the only metal which can Withstand its a
g tion-ani another charge Of nitric acid is apple
to complete the work
After the second charge has been in the san
manner removed, we see at the bottom Of the D
a black unpromising sediment remaining. b
the spectator aust not be discouraged. The see
ment is pure yellow gold, as will be shown !
washing it a few times in warm water, so as
free it from the acid that still eiings 10 its exterie
2 II now appears thoroughly puiyeriEed, and fa'r
ertitled 70 the name Of gold dust