The San Saba news. [volume] (San Saba, Tex.) 1873-1966, 1888-06-08
TONS OF SILVER.
COUNTING AND WEIGHING SiO,-
100000 IN SILVER COIN.
Expert Counters Who Handled
More than 1900 Tons of
the Bright Metal-A
Days Work.

Expert money counters have been
weighing and counting the 800, 600, 900
in gold, $40, 600, 900 in silver and $50,
600, 600 Of notes and bills stored at the
United States Sub Treasury, New York
Describing the process of handling the
silver, the Commercial .Adrertiser says:
The high silver vault is a room of
about sixty feet IN length by forty feet
in width. Its walls, floors and ceilings
are Of heavy plates OF riyeted iron, sur
rounded by thick walls o. granite The
foundation of the vault is of solid
masonry extending down as deep as the
foundation of the sub-treasury itself.
This iron room is divived into twelve
compartments ranged on either side.
eight compartments on one side and
four larger ones on the other, with a
narrow passageway between them. The
compartments are formed by boiler iron,
partitions and fronts with doors or gates
Of half-inch iron bars, crossed like lat
tice work, with the interstices too small
even to admit Of the insertion of a child's
hand. Each door is provided with a
pOnderous paddock.
The entrance to the vault is protected
by two iron bars; the outer one similar TO
a heavy safe door, and the inner one of
thick iron bars, and each with the
strongest lock that modern ingenuity
could devise. The vault is buglar- proof,
fire-proof and almost air-proof. Within
these solid walls not the faintest murmur
of the busy, busting world above and
around ever penetrates.
The twelve compartments within the
vault contain nearly $40, 900, 900 in silver
Of coin Of various denominations, though
by far the larger portion is composed OF
silver dollars. The coins are contained
in stout canvas bags, each bag holding
$1,000 and weighing a fraction ovei
fifty-nine pounds, in round numbers
sixty pounds. These are piled up from
the front to the rear of the compart-
ments, and from the floor to the ceiling
with the utmost regularity and nicely,
until they form almost a solid cube Of
silver of the size of the compartment
containing them. The four large com
partments are capable of holding be-
tween s., 600, 600 and 50, 0O0, coo each,
and the eight smaller compartments
about 81, 900, 900 each. The quantity Of
coin now stored in the whole vault JUST
about reaches its capacity. As each bag
contains $1,000 and weighs sixty pounds
avoirdupois. thirty-four bays, or $34,
600, would equal a ton in weight, 80
tons in round numbers. in reality % 7-17
tons or 1920 bags, would be required to
make up $1,000, 600, and as there Ia
shout $40, 600. 900 in all the total weight
Of silver would be 1900 tons, contained
in 40, 600 bags.
The process Of counting and weighing
the silver is very similar to that employed
in the gold count, only on a larger scale.
One compartment is purposely always
left empty in order TO facilitate recount
Or transfer. A perfectly adjusted coin
scale is placed in the narrow passageway
between the compartments, and as each
bag is taken from full compartment it
is weighed, and, if correct, is transferred
to the empty compartment and piled up
as it was in the fir,t one. A bag con.
tanning only perfect and unwoIn coin.
which has been carefully counted. is
used as the test Of the weight of each OF
the other bags When for any reason
bag falls short in weight, it is set aside
to be especially counted piece by piece.
Sometimes bags fall short in weight be-
cause they contain mostly worn or abrad-
ed coin, but the most frequent cause of
shortage is that the bag has burst, and
some of the pieces have slipped out and
sifted down among the under bags to the
floor. In such cases the bags are set
aside for a special count When the
bags are removed from the compartment
all the missing pieces are found on the
floor The bursting of the canvas bags
is of frequent occurrence, especially in
the lower tiers of the pile The enor-
nous weight of the silver above presses
upon the lower bags and ruptures them.
All the broken bags are discarded as soon
as discovered and new ones used in their
stead.
1t requires a force of eighteen or
twenty men to carry on the count. The
weigher, or man at the scales, the tally
men, the watchers, the piler, and eight
or ten men to simply handle the bags
and carry them one by one from the one
compartment to the scales and from the
scales to the man who does the repiling.
The mere manual labor of handling the
bags is so great that 1t requires men who
are used TO heavy work to do it. A
dozen 'longshoremen are employed at
the task, and even they complain at the
hard work and the strain on their backs.
caused by lifting aad carrying the sixty
pound bags, although they are accus-
toned to handling much heavier bur
dens, but the peculiar weight and solidi
~ Of the silver makes it much harder
than the handling of twice the weight in
some other material or form. The vault
is imperfectly ventilated for so many
people, and the breathing and perspir-
ing Of scores of men in its close confines
and the heat from tie half-dozen gas lets
renders the vault close and nearly as hot
as Turkish bath, and while all are com
PEELED TO doff their coats and vests, those
men who do the physical handling of
the bags strip down to their undershirt
and neither garments and frequently stop
to wipe the gathering moisture from
their brows. When they rest they sit on
bags OF silver Just as the miller sits on
his bags Of meal ut the mill door. 1t is
considered a good days work to handle,
weigh and pile s., 900, 600 in silver,
and those who are engaged in the work
arc only too glad when the day is done
and they can come out into the light and
air of the upper world.