The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1876-10-27

and made to firmly adhere The skin i
then tanned by peculiar process ii
which alum, isiDglass and the whites o
eggs are used the grease is all driver
out, and it is pressed and dried and GU
into leaves five and eight inches square
Eight hundred and fifty of these leaves
make the book or pack, and in its prepa
ration the cseca of five hundred bullocki
are used. The skin is semi-transparent
before being beaten, and in color is not
unlike raw hide or drum head. 1t will
stand furious beating, but tears in ones
fingers as easily as a sheet of letter paper.
Before the discovery of the goldbeater's
skin, parchment was used, Ochre or chalk
being placed between the leaves to pre-
vent their adhering.
| After the pack has been through a
hundred and fifty beatings it is sold to
the maker of Dutch or bronze metal,
who pays about $40 for it. Between
eah beating the skin is rubbed with tale,
roasted and powdered, which removes
| he to break. In the process of beating
| the PACK is worked repeatedly in the
hands, that is, bent in every direction, to
equally distribute the heat generated
| by the hammer and to prevent the COLDS
adhering to the skin. The requirements
of skill in this moulding or bending pro-
cess is obtained only after long practice,
and it is part of the goldbeater' s art
A blunder must destroy the pack and
render useless the work already done to
the gold. As the metal is beaten out to
the edge of the skin it is re-
moved and again cut in four
pieces with the "wagon." The piece
are replaced in the pack and again ham,
mered to its edge. The process is re-
peated until the gold is of the required |
thinness. The hammer used in the final |
beatings is of about seven pounds
weight. 1t is slightly convex on its
face, and the art of the beater is so to
work that the center shall at all times be
the thinnest part OF the leaf; and while
he must hammer all parts in such an
equal manner that the original square
shall grow slowly toward the edges, the
thickest part must always be at the out
side and fall among his waste. Here is
where practice and the expertness of a
light hand doing heavy work tell. OF
fifty pennyweights in gold in the ingot
seventeen is the return in leaf, the rest
being in scrap. 1t would seem that ma
chinery might be devised to do the heavy,
mnnstrOus labor of beating, but the in
CllSC 10 iSiShIllS, anu a man oAOhC |
can judge when to turn the pack, or
how to direct the work SO as to keep the I
thick edge outermost.
The English method of beating Ordi- ,
nary commercial gold leaf is to anneal
an ingot in hot ashes to remove all the
grease, and then run it between highly
polished steel rollers until it is one G
eight-hundredth of an inch in thick :
ness, an ounce of gold then making a I
ribbon ten feet long and an inch and a :
half wide. 1t is then annealed again {
and cut into squares weighing six grains. t
One hundred and fifty of them are {
1eaten in fine calfskin vellum to squares V
If four inches. These are quartered, q
md the squares again beaten and quar- v
cred. They are beaten again in the n
back, and the squares are then 400 in 8
lumber. After the next beating, an h
,unce of gold has been made to cover n
ne hundred square feet of surface, and I,
t this stage it begins to transmit green II
ays of light Repeated beatings re- W
uce it to an average thickness of one Il
wO-hundred-thOusandth part of an a
lch. n
The French process begins with forg- a
lg the gold upon anvtis, and Beating IL ii
ith small hammers 10 a thickness of f.
ne-sixth OF an inch, instead of putting a,
through rollers of polished steel. 1t M
then beaten as above described. The n
verage thickness of French commercial N
old leaf is one two-hundred- and eighty e1
lOusandth part of an inch. q,
The Leaf, after being beaten, is given q,
} the charge of girls, who have before A
lem paper books, each three and or
lree-eights inches square, and con-
inning twenty-five leaves. The
,aves are rubbed over slightly with red
chre, and are made by an old German
l Leis street, who has q monopoly Of the III
usiness, and supplies the tcade of the Nc
Tnited States. The woman opens the ~
ack, and with pair OF wooden pincers, w
artly like chOpsticks and partly like su ba
ar tOngs, deity spreads a leaf on a bl
.athern cushion in front of her, blows tr
smooth, and, with larger "wagon " 81.
nan the one in use before, and having ~
yo sharpened edges instead Oh one, r,
Its it into an exact square, the ragged ;s
lges instead of leaf falling through "a m
ide into leathern pocket below, for fu a
Ire collection and smelling. Any holes M
: breaks she patches deXterously with ta
ose pieces, which adhere instantly, and no
len transfers it to her little paper book. in
he fills these books for two and a half 90
3nts each, and her fair day swork issixty M
)oks. The books complete, each con- on
lining five and @ne-tenth grains of tb
I'D leaf, are packed books to the bun arr
e, and are twenty worth about $S ne
indie. on
Foil for dentists use differs from str str
Id leaf in not being beaten so thin. in
olu leaI mas alloy IN IL TO col0r IT, OuI be-
.ntists' foil must be chemically pure. me
10 foh1 oh1iShp,on+ Ita Mr. (NnnrOa
1 iacK IN broone sIreeU, then' husC he
ID to its other departments a reiner's
e and appointmentSNwhere it is made
pure as possible. 1T is then beaten.
le dentist, however, requires the foil bic
be in a spongy state, which is effect thu
by putting many leaves of foil be- scc
'een paper in press, and then exposing bIc
e whole to such a degree of heat that ola
e paper is entirely carbOnized, shrinks an
surface, and taking the gold with it, no
yes it a finely corrugated appearance. rec
any sheets of this are laid together and ne
t into shape. ser
Dutch metal or bronze is not made in mi
is country, but is imported from Ger lio
any, and costs about ten cents book. bic
is composed of tin, copper, and other tn,
atals, and is a very good imitation of low
Id, but it does not stand weather well, VIII
apt to tarnish and peel, and side by bio
Ie with the real leaf, is easily distin- the
ished. 1t is largely in use for frames nu
auction pictures and for decorations un
lere gold leaf would be too expen- an,
-e. COZ
Gold has been beaten to the thinness an,
one three hundred and sixty-seven- Oh,
Ousand- of an inch. nile
Pliny's time an ounce of gold was SEQ
ide into $3.50 leaves four fingers An
uare," Martial speaks of gold. leaf as
vapor, and Lucreti@s compares it to TIL
der's web.
Ie Centennial Award a Humbug.