Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1867-09-20

paper, but in steel aengravings, lines are |
cut into the plate then filed with ink, and
an immense pressure is required to stretch
and drive the paper down into all these
fine insterstices. Each press here is mon
ster of muscle. The hug of grizzly is
not the touch of a f1y's foot in comparison.
Put an linked plate and sheet into its mouth,
then move a little spring, and the steel jaw
comes down with the weight of eight hun
dred tons. The power is pumped up from
the Potomac. 1t is on the simple prlncl-
pie that if you apply pressure OF one ton
to little column Of water one inch square,
and then connect that column, by pipe,
with the water of tank whose surface Is
eight hundred times as large, you impart
the one ton to each of the eight hundred
square inches, and can then bring the whole
amount to bear upon one point no larger
than the end OF your finger Mighty is
the giant Cold Water when clad in hydro
static armor.
Into bronzing- room. We should have
glanced here earlier, for here bonds and
fractional notes are first treated. The
blank paper is passed througha Hoe cyl
inder press, where it receives in ink the flg-
ures and rings which are to glitter on
the figures and face of the finished note.
Then it goes through second steam press,
where brushes put on yellow, shining
powder in the places where the bronze
ought to GO This adheres to the wet ink;
then, in the same machine, other brushes
cleanse off all bits of metal from the rest
of the paper and an iron frame throws
out and piles up the sheets. Bronze Is
made of copper and zinc. 1t dries itself,
| and cannot be Oblterated without destroy
ing the paper. Girls who tend the presses
wear caps of white paper to protect their
| hair against minute particles f1oatlng about
| like flour in grist mill. ..~.5.
The walls, as in all other rooms where
machinery is running by steam, exhibit
nlacards "LADIEs MUST NOT WEAR FULL
SKIRTS IN THIS Room" The order orig
mated in the serious injury of one, through
her dress catching in wheel. So through
working hours limp skirts hang upon for
lorn figures. But in passing the dress ngs-
rooms and alcoves, we notice that each,
with its long rows of nails, is museum ct
hoops, all waiting to be donned at the
close of the day when the Bureau is still.
| If every private household is entitled to
one skeleton in its closet, two or three
| hundred is not more than fair allowance
! for the Treasury Department.
Here is numbering room. A dozen
girls sit at tiny machinery worked by
treadles. One takes bond--you see it
moving hither and thither in her swift
hand under the stamp" click-click-
click"-and quicker than the ticking of a
watch, the number "194, 642" is printed in
vermillion successfully upon it, and upon
all its forty coupons. She touches a
spring; the final type 90" changes to a
49," and again the busy little press clicks
| ~ 81 hor ui6 10 hos n
sheet of Sos on the First National Bank
of Portland Down on the lower left
hand corner of the first note is the bank
number aS9." On the upper right hand
corner she impresses the Department mum
! bere "2OO,242." So the busy steel workers
click on, numbering millions of dollars
daily.
| The separating room is, perhaps, most
interesting of all. Here are Clarks cut
ting and trimming machines, in which the
Bureau had its origin. A sheet of frac.
tional currency contains from twenty tC
fifty notes. These cutters separate and
trim the notes, count them, and lay them
cut in piles of So, $40, or $40, as required
When each Of the first six piles contain
| $50, the machine, if set to that figure
rings little bell to call attention to the
fact, moves a hand on the dial plate, to re-
cord the count, and goes right on, slicing
up, counting and recording fresh sheets
1t is wonder of wonders. Fed by two
girls, it does the work of forty. 1t sepa
rates, trims and punches 1000 sheets pei
hour. To the precision of machinery it al
most unites human intelligence. It makes
no mistakes. The packages of little notes
with no other count, are banded anC
packed in pasteboard boxes, containing
$1,000 to $4,000, and sent to the Treasurer
ready for issue. 7
Everywhere on our rounds have VIZ
passed girls counting, by hand, uncu
| sheets of notes, bonds and stamps usually
in packages of 1000 With long practice
they grow singularly expert. You see bu
only confused f1uttering of leaves, while
they count 1000 sheets in four minutes.
Upon the separated notes they carry OF
swiftly O. curious double mental operation
Every sheet of greenbacks originally con
tanned four bills. After cutting apart
Clark's machine drops them into four box
es. Being numbered consecutively, theil
order, in any Of these boxes will "skiI
four" If the top note is 102, $40, the mex
will be 102,644, and so on to the end. TIL,
girl takes up handful of these notes. BY
one process, she must count them of int
packages OF 100, and also make sure tina
the Department numbers come into prope
sequence. 10 repeat, at every note, tn
long 102, GAO, ETC., would be endless. So
while running her fingers over every note
she gives, simultaneously with its count
only the figure of its Department number
thus: Go, ID, 3-8, 4-2, Sc, Go,
on through the whole hundred. Your ey
can barely follow her lightning speed
checked here and there for second, as sh,
whisks into its proper order note who's
number tells her it is in the wrong place
She grows so used to this singular doubl
enumeration that she cannot possibly
count single hundred rapidly withou
carrying this attendant sequence alon!
with it in her mind. D-h IN
Bonds, when completed, are delivered t,
the Register; National bank notes to tn
, Comptroller; greenbacks and currency tt
the Treasurer We have in circulation
$28,000,000 of fractional currency.
, wears so rapidly that we issue $4,000
weekly, to take the place Of spoiled notes
called in and Cancelled.
The Printing and Engraving Burea
handles daily from So, 10000 to 100000
of our various public securities. 1t ha
! manufactured, in whole or In part, NOR
+ than $7,000,000,000 And yet the Govern
: ment has never lost dollar of it, except
' deficiency of $1,100, which occurred be
! fore the Bureau was fairly organized.
is an unexampled chapter in financial his
2 tory
. Like that cylinder where old notes al
thrown, to be transformed into new paper
the safe where dies and bed-pieces are d.
posted, and the other safe, large as pal