The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1885-11-19

Phi ladelphia. Cellars must have come
high when the Mint was built. for there
was a remarkable economy in digging
il. It is not common. ordinary fiat
cellar, bu+ cOncave pit. When YOU
stand in the middle of it the floor runs
up hill so abruptly On both sides of you
that YOU can see no higher than the
knees of the man who is standing at the
door. Down these the bags of coin are
piled like potatoes. The visitors, how
ever, did rot come down to see these, but
merely to examine into the topping ma
chine. whose operations on the gold
side Of the melting-roo had excited
their curiosity. They only beheld an
S00-pouud hywheel making only q few
hundred revolutions a minute and send
ing a shaft at a St.ll slower rate of
speed up into the flooring. Then they
reascended and Teinyesti@ated the top
ping machine. 1t is the most sullen.
morose. malevOlent looking bit of
enginery ever looked at. Perhaps it is
It's resemblance to the guillotine which
makes it look so. 1t ) a straight,
heavy steel shaft running up from the
flooring and constantly bobbing up
and down with a reluctant sort of mo-
ton. There is a square hole in the up
per end of it. and in the upper side of
the hole is n KIN fe. This hobs sOlemnlv
up and down past stationary bench in
which is another knife. A workman put
the end Of an ingot half an inch thick
into the space between them rs the bob
bing knife went up. Down it came, bit
OFF the half-inch Of precious metal as a
knife cuts cheese, and spat it into the
iron basket underneath. The move
ment is very slow. 1t does not strike
awfuily relentless, with a look of
grim relish for an eternity of mOrose
bobbing and biting. The workman fed
his sulkv pet various tid-b;tS of
precious metal, and talked about its
achievements. 1t would bite of. he
said. all its Jaws could hold that is to
say. two inches OF cold metal without
need OF purchase or momentum, but
simply by that irres 'stible dragging
force from the fivwheel. 1t chewed off
the top of another workman finger,
one time, he said, and before the artist
left he stuck the end of the pencil which
sketched the topping machine into its
Jaws, and had that chewed off, too.
The nse of the machine is to cut the
ends of the ingOts of straight when
they come wedge shaped from the
mOuldS.
The visitors followed an ingot into
the coiners' department. The ingot has
in its name. with its suggestions of
treasure galleOns and buccaneers, about
all the romance there is in the nOmen-
clature of money. 1t has in itself fifty
dollars worth of silver prepared by the
meter for the coiner'S use, the shape
of bar twelve inches long. two inches
wide and half an inch thick. 1t has
rapid. varied and rather trying expert
ence before it is on its wayj into dollar
shape. The first room in the coiners
department was full of artisans rolling,
drawing, cutting and milling the ingOts.
Through sheer force is the first of the
coiner's art exercised on the ingot. |
That which the visitors had followed |
was inserted between the jaws of two |
huge rollers and slowly went through a |
process of deglutition down an iron
throat Twelve times it has to 90 |
through this ordeal, the pressure being |
increased by the narrowing of the space |
through which the ingot passes by a |
sixteenth of an inch each time. 1t is |
then twice its former length and so re-
duced in this press that when split in |
the middle the two bars which are pro-
duced are Just the thickness of a dollar |
The rolling process impartS heat to |
the metal which neceSSitateS the use of |
handling it. and brittleneSS to over
come which another trip to the furnace !
is required.
Some cOiner of imperial Rome was |
doubtless long time at hammering out |
Judas thirty pieces of silver. The
machine which was working across the
room from the rollers. cut out in the |
minute which the visitors looked ut it |
just eight times as many pieces as
Judas sold his Lord for-twO hundred |
and forty. all tOld-using up in the
process about ten bars of metal which |
had been heated in a furnace and
in drawing machine
before they reached the cutter.
Its Ike girl cutt ng out cookies"
said Colonel Maurice rs he watched the
big machine chanking silver like a
greedy boy. Each bar of cutting was
bent in three folds BY workman As the
machine finished with it and slowed in
a box for return 10 the meters Then
the milling machine was set whirling
1t is thick circular plate of steel, with
grooved edges revolving in circular
hoop of steel with lis inside edges also
grOOved. \ grist of the metal disks
from the cutter was dropped into a
tube. of which the bottom was the
space between the whirling and the
stationary grooves. Then the milling
machine began scattering the disks
from 4 slit in its circular side. The
disks. when they came out, had a raised
edge on each side. They began to look
like dollars. Very dull and zinc-lik
looking dollars they were, however.
The visitors followed them into an ad-
joining room, where they were plunged
INTO an acid bath and then placed into
4 revolving wire cradle with quantity
IF hot sawdust. There they were left,
turning brighter and more dollar-like
Every moment.
The adjusting room, where the tour
next led. looked not unlike meeting
If DorcaS society. for at least a score
If matronly looking for the
most part, sat and stitched in knots of
hree and four, talking meantime in low
ones.
They are sewing coin bags" said
Colonel Maurice in explanation. But
If all the flying fingers in the busy
Dom the most sentient and human
seemed the steel d gifts of the coin
,reSS. 1t seemed satire of humanity
o one watching the workings of this