Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1865-07-01
w1EeAND,s ASSAY OFFICE.

teU on -nalh suSeI7 u lew uoOI5 OeiON
Maynard's Exchange buildings, is to be
receipted for. This receipt details what
the deposit is whether ore or bullionl
and is designed to be returned by the de-
positor; it is accompanied by a blank
order for the bars of bullion to be made
from the crude amalgam delivered-which
order, signed by the depositor, has to be
sent to the Office In order to obtain the
bars of bullion. This strictness is in
tended not only to keep the depositor
4" straight" but to beget extreme punctu-
atty and promptness on the part of his
employees. When crude bullion is re-
ceived, assays made are endorsed 10th
ways-not only that the bars are worth
as much as they purport to be, but that
they are worth exactly the amount desig-
mated in dollars and ~cents-thus furnish
ing to producer and purchaser an equitable
scale whereon they may graduate honest
prices; the producer receiving the full
amount in gold coin, the purchaser only
paying what is really the value of the arti-
Gle purchased. A pair of platform scales
first receives and carefully weighs the
crude amalgam. These scales have been so
arranged hat the onc-fourth part Of a
troy ounce can be receipted for with accu-
racy. From the scales the bullion is
passed to a large receiving pan, such as
New England farmers wives are o
on Saturday mornings to plunge their
plump Puritan arms in and mix the regu-
lar supply of rye and Indian for Sundays
brown bread-to which is attached q
numbering tag. bearing details to govern
the meter in his labor the same is then
passed to the basement story where three
furnaces, capable of melting 10000 ounces
per day, ranged in solid masonry, receives
the precious material. Only two of these
furnaces are used for bullion assays, the
other being devoted exclusively to ore as
says. In the furnaces the bullion is
melted, and when the metal is thoroughly
fused the vessel containing it is raised to
the furnace front, and from the top q
small quantity is poured into a bucket Of
water and the balance Except a small
amount at the bottom, which is also pre-
cipitated in cold water,) is poured into
moulds, when it soon assumes the
form of magnificent bullion bars. From
the quantity before spoken Of pour
ed from the top and the bottom of the
crucible a portion is carefully selected of
a suitable quality for assaying. This
selected bullion is then taken to roo No.
2, where four assays are made, two OF
which are preliminary, one to show gold
only, the other to show both gold and
silver. Subsequently two more critical
assays are made, n by the humid pro-
cess, deliberately described some time
since,) the other by the synthetic process.
When all four of these assays are COM
pleted, il there be any disagreement, then
fresh assays are made. If still disagree
ing, the entire substance is melted Cinclud-
ing bars and chips,) and the whole process
is again to be passed through in order to
obtain a satisfactory and equable result.
By making assays from both the top and
bottom of q crucible of molten bullion a
more accurate assay can Of course be had,
and when those assays agree perfectly, it
is q most certain assurance that the bull
lion is evenly melted and diffused. After
the assays are all made and ascertained to
correspond, the next thing to be known Is
the fneness Of the bar. A pair of finely
graduated scales, on one beam of which is
placed q weight, designated as n half Of
q French drachm, to counterbalance which
a chip of the bullion, wrapped in leaf lead,
is placed in the other end Of the scale.
This enwrapped bullet is then placed in a
bone cupel; a pair Of furnaces are heated
to a cherry redness for about fifteen min
utes, when the cupel is placed therein and
allowed to remain a few minutes "a cur
rent of cold DIR passing through the oven,O
when the same is withdrawn, and a but
ton of gold and silver remains in the bot
tom of the cupel, which absorbs the lead,
iron and other base metals contained in
the original chip. This button is then
weighed, and shows the ineness of the
gold and silver mixed. The button is
then placed in q small pipet of glass and,
covered by nitric acid, is placed in what
is termed q sand bath, being sand heated
by n graduated plane, which dissolves the
silver in the button, leaving the gold.
Subtract the amount Of gold from the
gross amount Of gold and silver and your
product will be the 6neness in silver. By
adding salt to the mixture of acid and
silver, the latter metal is precipitated and
the chloride of silver is thus obtained.
When the fneness is thus a~scertained, the
bars are stamped with the exact valuation
in dollars and fractions, and any bar from
Mr.. Weigand's Office is warranted to be of
exactly the value it purports to be. We
were courteously received and all possible
information given US. We regret our ina
bility to be more minute in details.
OxE Senior Pezel, a shoemaker by trade,
has been lately elected President of Peru.
The mechanic arts are looking up. A
tailor is President of the United States,