The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1873-07-01
PRICE THREE CENTS.

OtnpT look III US IL C,ll1le OUT, ana n1nd-
ed it back to the first one. He frightened
the roller, and put it through again. And
SO it went back and forth, till ii looked like
a broad, beautiful gold ribbon.
But so much rolling made it too wide
and it had next to be cut into narrow strips
For this they had the funniest scissors you
ever heard of. They are called circular
shears; and are merely two sharp-edged
wheels running together, the edges meet
ing all the time like n pair of scissors. The
workmen put the gold band up to the wheel
which seized and drew it through cutting it
as easily as you can utpaper. 1t came out
in beautiful long ribbons.
But in spite Of all the rolling and squeez-
ing, the gold was still too thick for money,
and to make it exactly right, they had a
very curious process, called drawing.
First, one end of the gold ribbon was
pressed quite thin by rollers. This thin
end was put through hole in hard steel
plate, which hole was exactly the thickness
and width that the gold must be- The end
that was through the hole, was put into the
jaws of pair of pincers. that grip for good
| tell you. The pincers were then hooked
on to a chain, which was drawn along by
steam power
1t would be impossible for n man to draw
thick piece of gold through q thin hole,
perfect ease, drawing pincers gold and all.
Something had to give, you see; the steam,
the chain, and the pincers were all strong
| er than the soft, precious metal, so it was
drawn through the small hole, of course
coming out just the width and thickness of
the hole, and longer than ever.
The next thing was done by boy sit
ting at a machine that does nothing but
champ, champ, all day
The great steam giant living in the cellar
whose long arms lift the pots, turn the roll
ers, and draw out the gold, also keeps the
| cutting machine on the bite all day. The
boy has only to feed it with the gold ribbon.
Every time the cutter comes down, it bites
off a gold piece which falls into box. 1t
keeps the boy busy to supply it, so fast as
it cuts.
These pretty. round, smooth pieces of
gold are called blanks, and from the cutting
machine they go to the wcighcrs.
Probably you know that a five dollar gold
piece is itself worth five dollars, and to have
it so, it must be of certain weight The
weighers are girls, who have each pair of
delicate scales before them, in which they
try every piece. If too light, it must go
back to the melting pot and if too heavy,
she runs flat file around the edge of the
piece, till it is exactly right. 1t is then
ready to be milcd.
Look on the edge of gold piece, and you
will see it is not fiat, but in little ridges, or
fittings. 1t is Il curious thing to see that
done. A child tended the machine, and all
he had to do was to keep certain tube full
of the gold blanks. At the other end of the
tube is some machinery, and as soon as Il
blank reaches that point, it is seized and
made to run over a sort of little bridge, just
wide enough for it, and with ratings on the
edges, to keep the blank on. As the piece
runs over, wheel running all the time over
the bridge, presses down very hard on the
blank and when it runs out on the other
side, the edge is bound to be pressed up into
ridges or millcd.
thought | could never get tired of look
ing at that procession ofgold pieces running
over the funny little bridge but asI wanted
to see the last process, had to go on.
The coming machine, which is the last,
stamps the figures on, and changes gold
blank into United States coin. This ma
chine, also, like the cutting and milling ma
chimes, requires only feeder, that is a per-
son to keep the tube full of blanks. The
piece at the bottom of the tube is seized by
a pair of steel fingers, carried off and laid in
n steel bed not Il cradle this time, the
same shape as the blank, but very little
larger. 1t is hardly there before a stamp
comes down on it with great force and the
plain blank slides off beautiful, perfect,
gold coin.
You may be sure picked up the first one
| saw stamped, as mine for after following
my gold all through those long processes of
melting, and rolling, and drawing, &c,
had no idea of running the risk of losing it,
But though | had followed the gold from
the kettle into which my gold went of course
could not keep my grains separate So
had to be content with n coin out OF the
same kettle
In all these processes. good deal of gold
gets scattered about the building. Not in
little pieces, for they are very careful OF
those. and every workman has to give back
the same weight he received. or about the
same, in finished work and scraps but a
great deal gets off in the shape of fine dust.