The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-07-17
HOW BANK NOTES ARE MADE.
The Difficult and Delicate Work Turned
Out by the Government EnRravers.

100 people who handle bank notes knows
how much trouble it takes to make them.
The making" in this case, Of course, is I'M
derstood in the sense of producing the at
tractive specimens Of the engrayer's art IN
green, orange and black. Otherwise the
making" comes quite easy, far more than
the average citizen is aware of. Even the
more or less crude work of the counterfeter
is the result of labOriOus and palnstaklng
efforts of many weeks. In detective sto-
ries one is wont to read that artists Of the
highest standing frequently lend their ge-
MUS to the production Of the queer" but
this is Indignantly denied by the legitimate
artists.
During my long career have heard OF
but two or three good engravers who had
anything TO do with cOunterfeits," said H.
j. Hatch, formerly of the government
bureau Of engraving and printl. g, and now
connected with the Western bank note com
pany. Tho good engraver woull scorn to
engage in such werk His standing as an
artist and citizen is too high for that sort
Of thing. Moreover, | do not think that
there Is any one artist who combines IN his
person the aptne5s for the three great spe-
cialtles of bank note work-the lettering,
lathe and scroll work and picture engrav
ing. Especially the latter speciality is one
in which the height of art IS reached by
nut few. In fact, there are not moe than
six or eight proficient artists in the line or
bank note picture engraving in this country,
and their services are so well paid that they
would be worse than fools t. throw their
talents away in criminal pursuits. The
bank note as YOU see lt--of course | speak OF
the design only-is not the work OF one
endeavor, but of four to each plate at
least. Each artist engraves a part of the
design and the different parts or dies are
united to one plate by an intricate and dell
cate system of transferring"
One can readily gain an idea Of the min
uteness of bank note work when 1t is learned
that it takes good engraver from twenty
to thirty days to complete the vignette-
portrait or scene alone Take for instance,
General Grants portrait in the vignette of
the S. silver certificate, the counterfeit of
which is Just now the talk of the city.
careful scrutiny by means of magnltymg
glass will disclose that the work, which upon
first glance impresses one as the result OF
miniature protralture iii ink, consists OF
multitude of delicately engraved lines and
dots which can only be produced by the aid
of a magnifying glass.
each portrait requires a different com
bination of lines and dots to harmonic with
the features of the man portrayed" contin-
ued Mr. Hatch, speaking in the Chicago
Herald. There is no system OF portrait
engraving. If an artist would attempt 10
employ a settled method he would distort
the features. In fact, each engraver puts
his own individuality into his work and his
production is as characteristic of him as the
signature is of a writer. So much is this
the case that one engraver in this line will
be able to tell the work of another at a
glance For this reason the cOuntertelter
encounters insurmountable difficulties in
copying "A vignette, unless he discovers some
mechanical method, like photographlng,
litho-engravluR or eiectrOtyplnE, and these
aids of the cOunterfeiter are, OF course, at
once apparent to the expert The counter
feter who copies portrait by hand cannot
keep his individuality out of the work. Pic
ture work requires the highest grades of
| engraving. The artist has not only to pro
duce light aud shade but he must under
| stand how TO harmonize lines in order to OBJ
| tain what is called speaking likeness In
| tins respect the engravers art is not unlike
! language You may express the same idea
| in different words, which express the
same idea exactly, beautifully, not
word too much nor one lacking.
| Thus there is but one harmony of lines and
| dots which makes a correct portrait. To
| copy such portrait by hand without the
copyist being able to transplant himself into
the creative individuality of the original
artist is preposterous. That is the reason
| WnN Jle liIeflOIIIN Oh Il tbuIlleIlblI IL near
| ly always first observed in the picture work.
| Where there is one picture engraver there
| is a handful of letterers.n
| Truly, the lot Of bank note engraver is
/ that of patient toiler. Day after day he
| plods away with his assortment of diamond
pointed gravers, some of them as fine as
! the finest needles Line by line and dot by
dot he carves into the shining steel plate
before him a miniature of the design to be
| IoNrc han, inf lie
and the weeks into months before his work
is finished, yet each line and dot is of his
own creation, until all the minute carvings
blend into one beautiful production-a
| speaking likeness of the design and still so
widely different in the execution. That
part of the plate, however, is not the one
| from which the note is printed. The lathe
worker and the letterer have been busy on
their parts of the design while the portrait
O. gravcr was working, each artist
working on separate piece Of
Steel These pieces are hardened
and form the die. From the latter the de
sign is transferred to a steel roll of softer
nature by applying an immense pressure,
actually iinprcssng the design of the die to
| roll, on which of course the parts sunk in
| the die will be elevated and the elevations
depressed. This part of the work, though
mechanical, requires the greatest degree of
nicely and exact adjustment Of parts in the
| complicated machinery. It's results, speak
| ing by comparison, are toa stereotvped ma
trix what . steel engravin. of modern times
! is to an ancient wCodcut Tie steel roll, con-
! tanning now what may he termed the matrix
! of the note, or rather one side of it, is har-
| dened in turn and from the roll the design Is
| transferred to II softer plate by immense
pressure. The latter plate Is the one from
which the printing is done luaSmuch rs
not more than from 10000 to 1900 impre,.
sons on paper can be taken from one steel
! plate it is clear that numerous printing
| plates have to he made from the Original
engraving, which is known as the bod
| piece
The plates used for printing are imme IL
ately destroyed when the impressions begin
! 10 show flaws. The bed -pi cesn are pre-
| served i'm a vault of the treasury and tenn
| Dorarly transferred 20 the bureau of eugraV-
! ing and printing when 1t becomes necessary
10 make new printing plates. All thi, Is
! done under the strcie supervision, Of
| course, yet it h ~ happened that wax i'm
prvssons got into tine han Is of counterfeit
! erS.. These wax Impressions have been
! treated with Chemicals, known @. jy 10 i1u-
! Queer, of the queer, until rVery tine, dot
and tilament Of the grnuiue origllai was
| transferred to the counterfeit plate or
! course, in such cas- nothing remained for
| the government but to retire tho entire So
RE, Of genuine notes from circulation. IL rap
pens not iullcqurutly & at counterfeiterS
| produce "a small number OF the "qu err sur
! with ObN ions ipfePU9 Then. uftp- tla Drass