The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1885-12-05

makes it look so. 1t is a straight,
heavy steel shaft running up from the
flooring and constantly bobbing up
and down with reluctant sort OF mo-
ton. There Is square hole in the up
per end of it, and in the upper side Of
the hole is KIN fe. This hobs solemnly
up and down past stationary bench ia
which Is another knife. A Workman put
the end of an ingot half an inch thick
into the space between them as the bob
bling knife went mp. 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
one as being very forcible. 1t is simply
awfully relentless, with look OF
| grim relish for an eternity of nibrose
bobbing and biting. The workman fed
| bis sulkv pet various tid-bts of
precious metal, and talked about its
achievements 1t would bite off, 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 6ywheel. 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
1.-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. lt has a
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 inqots.
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 degluttion 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
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-
dueed are just the thickness of dollar.
The rolling process imparts a 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 a fong 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 at 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 drawing machine
before they reached the cutter.
Its Ike girl cutting out cookies"
said Colonel Maurice as he watched the
big machine chanking silver like a
greedy boy. Each bar of cutting was
bent in three folds bv workman as the
machine finished with it and slowed in
box for return to 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 It's inside edges also
grooved. A 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 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 like
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
a revolving wire cradle with quantity
of hot sawdust.. There they were left,
turning brighter and more dollar-like
every moment. .s..s..-s...
The adjusting room, where the tour
next led, looked not unlike a meeting
of Doreas society, for at least score
of women-matronly looking for the
most part sat and stitched in knots of
three and four, talking meantime in low
tones.
They are sewing coin bags" said
Colonel Maurice in explanation. But
OF all the flying fingers in the busy
room the most sentient and human
seemed the steel gifts of the, coin
press. 1t seemed a satire of humanity
to one watching the workings of this
machine that it should do so much and
the mortal who ruled it should do so
little. All the share the quiet ladylike
looking woman who sat before the press
had in its operation was in placing pile |
after pile of bright silver moons in its
tube. Then at every three quarters of
a second the. two steel fingers of the
machine would catch the bottom moon
OF the pile, pilot it on its course to
its place between the dies and leave it |
there. Then, with pressure of sixty
tons exerted. every three quarters of q
second the head of Liberty came down
on the eagle beneath and the silver moons
between received their impress.
The silver moons which drop from
the coin press are dollars now. Before
they reached the coin press the con-
science OF the Treasury Department had |
to decide upon their claim to be dollars.
The conscience of the Treasury Depart
ment; is the weighing machine. The |
visitors saw this thing draw into its re-
cesses coin. They saw it hold it there
for seven seconds while 1t weighed it |
and then slide it into one of the two
middle troughs of row of four. II the |
conscience had found the coin too light, |
it would have left it rebukingly in the |
trough at the left end of the row. If it |
had found it too heavy it would have
left it in the right hand trough. The
conscience with its tin tubes does this |
four hundred times a minute all day |
long. when it IS running full tilt. The
conscience was made in Austria. Mercy |
towards an improperly constituted dol |
lar enters into its composition to the |
extent of just one grain and half-the |
amount by which the law allows dollar |
to vary. More than this it is impossible |
to describe the conscience.
The topping marhine was british;
the fingers of the coin press human. A |
pantheist would have to ascribe a very
large share Of the universal essence Of /
divinity to the workings of the weigh
ing machine, passing unerring judg-
msnt, as 1t does, ON the labors Of all the |
Il T. a.