Warren sheaf., 1881-07-13
NINETY.NINE TONS OF GOLD.

NINETY-NINE TONS OF GOLD.
How Sixty Millions of Bullion Looks All, in
One Room-Tugged about aud Weighed, a
Hundred Thousand Dollars worth at ..
Time-How 1t is Tested and Why it is
Boiled in Acid.
From the New York Sun
It costs 1900 to send So, 1000, 600 in
bullion from the New York Assay Office to
the Philadelphia mint. That is why .
room in the Assay Office is at present
walled around with gold bricks. The
weight of $5,OOO,OOO is eight tons and a
quarter, or more accurately, 1Q, ,585 pounds.
Congress has asked for $4,000 TO cover
the expense of transporting bullion to the
mint, but it only appropriated $4,000 Be-
tween the I'd of August last and May lst,
$9O,OOO,OO in gold was received in the As
say Office, and, for lack of money to send
it to the mint, 100000, 900 yet remains in
the hands of the superintendent Thomas
Q. Acton. This sixty millions weighs
own it would be able to wall himself up in
it as in a well, and the we'll would not be
SO wide or SO high but that he could stand
in the middle and touch every brick The
number of gentlemen in this country who
could perform this interesting experiment
with their own gold is small. The bricks
IN the Assay Office average about $4, 900
apiece in value. The most Of them are not
much to look at. They are black and dull in
coloras cheap quality of stovepipe. If you
scratch one with q knife you make br:s5nt
yellow markand this mark will not get black
again. These black bricks are composed of
melted foreign coins, containing about the
rlght::amount of alloy for American coinage,
and SO the alloy is allowedto remain in them.
When the melted gold is poured into the
moulds the oxygen of the air attacks the
copper of the alloy, and turns it black.
1t it were worth while to protect the bricks
from the air until they got cold they would
never get any darker ia color than gold
coin would Two thirds of all these bricks
are made of French twenty franc pieces.
Those bricks made of gold directly from
the mines are very nearly pure metal, and
are as brightas coins. The drainage from
all this gold, if it were put at interest at
five per cent, it would makea golden stream
of $342 an hour running day and night.
aIknow just we'll how aauch gold there
is in this room, Superintendent Acton
said, as he gazed about at the piled wealth,
"as know my own age, but notwithstand-
ing that it must all be weighed again in an
ticipation of the account to be rendered by
July LIST. If we had money enough to
send it to the Philadelphia mint, we would
not have the great trouble of weighing it..
About $1O0, 900 of it only is put en- scales
at time.
Six Ren were at work. Down the faces
OF all but two of them the sweat rolled, and
their hands were grimy with black oxide
Of copper. They tugged at the gold bars
like longshore-men unloading pig iron.
heavy platform truck, on four small
wheels, was rolled into the room, and on
this about twenty-five bars, or bricks,
taken from the built up golden walls on
three sides of the room, were laid. The
truck was then drawn along the floor by
four men, two pulling and two pushing, in
to an adjoining room, where the scales were.
The scales are about five feet high, and the
index needle is more than four feet long.
The beam and the pans are suspended on
steel edges as sharp as knife blades. to
avoid friction. When the small weights
had been added to the large ones to balance
the gold, the point of the long index needle
would tremble over the middle line of the
ivory graduated scale. This pair Of scales
is Of kind 50 delicate that when brought
to balance with two pieces of paper of
equal size in the pans, the mere writing of
name with a lead pencil on one of the
pieces of paper will add enough weight to
the paper to turn the scale in it's favor
this has actually been done on one of the
sc lies in the assay. room out tha pair is
protected from air currents by glass
case.~
The men who handle the gold, though
not differing much in outward appearance
q oj 0h
are, in fact, men of intelligence, of ap-
proved reputation, and who receive good
pay.
I'VE would not have all this trouble -
said the chief weigher, as he put 500
ounce weight gently on the scales with his
right hand and wiped off his brow with his
left, if we had arrived at the parliament
of man, the federation of the world
What we sigh for here is an international
system of coinage. The most of all this
weight came to this country as good for
eign coin, but it's lack of uniformity with
our mintage compels the United States to
recoin it, and me to fight these weights all
day."
A larger supply of foreign coins than
usual has come into the country since Au-
gust last, because the rate of exchange has
been in our favor. It was explained that
the most of the gold other than foreign
coin came to the Assay Office by express
from mines and from. various business
houses. 1t sometimes happened that de-
posit of original dust, in small faky grains,
was brought into the Office by brouze-
faced miner in person, who had brought it
east with him on visit to his former home.
The methods to take the gold on deposit
from the bankers and others who send it.
and to give them check on the Sub Treas
ury after an assay had been made. Each
deposit of gold is melted and cast into
bricks in every case before the assay is
made. Two small quantities are chiselled