Semi-weekly south Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1883-1889, 1885-12-08

door. Down these the bags OF coin are
piled like potatoes. The visitors, how
ever. did notcome down 10 see these, but
merely to examine into the topping ma
chine, whose operations on the gold
sido OF the melting-room had excited
their curiosity. They only beheld an
SOO-pound nywheel making only few .
hundred revolutions minute andsend-
ing q shaft at still slower rate Of
speed up into the flooring Thenpthey
reascended and reinyestigated tho top
ping machine. II is the most suIen.
morose. maleyolent looking bit OF
enginery ever looked at. Perhaps 1t is
its resemblance to the guillotino which
makes II look so. 1t Is straight,
heavy steel shaft running up from The
flooring and constantly bobbing up
and down with reluctant sort OF mo,
ton. There Is q square hole in the up
per end OF it, and in the upper side Of
the hole is knife. This bobs solemnly
up aud down past q stationary bench ID
which is another knife. A workman put
the end OF an lngot half an inch thick
into the space between them as the bob
blng knife went up. Down It camc, bit
OF the half-inch Of precious metal US a
knife cuts cheese, and spat it into the
iron basket underneath. The move
ment Is very slow It does mot strike
\ one as being very fOrcble. 1t Is simply
awlully rolenlloss, with, a look OF
grim relish for an eternity of morose
bQbbing and biting. The workman fed
| his Csulkyi pct 4variOtis tid.bjts OF
| precious metal, and talked about its
achievements. II would bite of, he
said. all its jaws could hold that Is to
'snyitwo inches OF cold metal, without
need OF purchase or momentum. but
simply by that irresistible dragging
force from the llywheel It 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
skctched tho topping machine into its
Jaws, and had that chewed of, too.
Tho use OF tho machine is to cut the
ends OF the ingots OF straight when
they come wedge shaped from the
moulds. tTl 1881 7bi
- The visitors followed IN ingot into
tho coinors' department. Tho ingot has
in its name, with its suggestions OF
treasure galleons and buccaneers, about
all tho romance there Is in the nomen-
clature Of money, 1t has in itself fifty
dollars worth Of silver prepared by the
pclter for the coiner's use. the shape
OF n bar twelve inches long. two inches
wide and half an inch thick. It has
rapid, varied and rather trying expert
ence before 1t is on its wayj into dollar
shape. The first room in the coiners'
department was full of artisans rolling,
drawing, cuttng and milling the ingots.
Through sheer force is the first OF the
coner'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
process OF deglutition down an iron
throat. Twelve times it has to 90
through this ordeal tho pressure being
increased by the narrowing OF the space
through which the ingot passes by
sixteenth Of an inch each time. II is
then twice IFS former length and SO re-
duced in tbs press that when split in
The middle thc-two bars which are pro
'duced arc just the thickness ofa dollar.
The rolling process imparts heat to
the metal which nocessitates the use Of
handling il and q brittleness to over
eome which another trip to the furnace
Is required. w. W Eoe klV 4-i
Some coinery Of imperial Rome. was
doubtless long tme at hammering out
Judas thirty pieces of silver. The
machine which was working across the
room from tho 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 furnace and
Strengthened in q drawing machine
before they reached the cutter.
'1t's like girl cutting out cookies"
said Colonel Maurice as he watched tho
big machine chanking silver like
greedy boy. Each bar of cutting was
bent in three folds by workman as tho
machine finished with it and slowed in
a box for return to the meters. Then
the milling machine was set whirling
II Is q thick circular plate Of steeL with
,grooyed edges revolving In circular
hoop Of steel, with It's inside edges also
.gfdoved. "A lgrist of the metal disks
from the cutter was dropped into "a
tube, of which the bottom was the
space between ythpl whirlng and tho
stationary grooves. Then tho milling
machine began scattering the disks
from slit Ia its circular side. The
disks, when thoy came out had u raised
edge ON each side They began to Look
like dollars. Very dull and zinc like
looking dollars they wore, however.
The visitors followed them into an ad-
joining room, where they were plunged
into an acid bath and th0n placed into
a revolving wire cradle with quantity
of hot sawdust There they were left.
turning brighter and lGore dollaflike \
every moment.
The adjusting room where the tour
next led, looked not unlike meeting
of Q, Dorcas society. for at least a score
OF women-inatronly looking fol. the
most part, sat and stitched IN knots of
three and four, talking meantime in low
t6nes. A'ilgfJ " NQbU tss !ii
They are sewing coin bags" said
OOlOuVl MHurlCo III oApiuHutlOu' DuJ
of all the flying fingers in the busy
room the most sentient. and human
seemed the steel digits Of the coin
press. It seemed satire of humanity
to one watching tho workings of this
machine that It should do so muchr aud
the mortal who ruled it should do so
little. All the share the quiet ladylike !
looking woman who sat before tho press
had IN its operation was in placing Pile +
after pile of bright silver moons in its
tube. Then at every three-quarterss Of
a second the two steel fingers of the
machine would catch the bottom moon
of the pilc,- pilot II on its course to
its place between the dies and leave II
there Then. n.-wtha pressure o1 sixty
tons exertel. every three quarters Of q
second the head of Liberty came down
on tho eagle beneath aud the silver moons
between reccivcd their impress.
The silver moons WHICH drop, from /,
the coin press arp dollars now.' Before
thcy reached the coin press the con.
scenceo the Treasury Department had
to decide upon their claim to. be dollars.
The conscience OF the Treasury Depart
ment is the woighing machine. The
visitors saw. this thing draw-into its-re,
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