Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1889-11-28

If some one would write the true story
of dollar note from the time it leaves
the Treasury, fresh, crisp and beautiful,
till it comes back, tattered, defaced,
-soiled and battered after its tussle with
the world, a woeful wreck, to be ground
out of existence, it would be a story full
of strange and exciting changes and ro-
mantle episodes, with here and there a
smile, and here and there tear, as it
was factor in good or evil deeds. But
before it is sent out to be struggled for
and sometimes fought for-the history
of it's evolution, from the spotless paper
to its really artistic finish, is quite as
interesting.
All the paper for the United States
notes, bonds, drafts, revenue-stamps, and
every thing printed in this place, is
made especially for the Government.
The Government gives out the contract,
the paper is made at Dalton, Mass,
every sheet is registered in the mills,
and not sheet can be made that must
not be accounted for to the Govern
ment. The paper is received at the
Treasury, and from there is issued to
the bureau on requisitiOn which states
what it will be used for. The required
number of sheets for each days use is
sent from the Treasury to the bureau
every day in big iron van, securely
locked, and in this van the printed
money and revenue stamps are sent to
the Treasury every morning; but when
these are carried their safety is made
still more sure by two guards, who
swing on the back of the wagon to pre-
vent any bold depredations. Every
sheet of paper issued to the bureau is
kept account of at the Treasury, and it
is never for an instant lost trace of
while it is in the bureau. The i'm
menSe amount of work and care this re-
quires can scarcely be realized. During
the fiscal year ended June 80, 1889,
there were SO, 207, 1854 sheets of special
paper issued to the bureau, and as but a
very small percentage is wasted, you
can imagine what lot of new money
and revenue stamps were sent out over
the country.
The first work is the engraver's, and
the entire face Or back of note is never
done by one man. One engraver makes
the portrait, another makes the large
lettering, another the small lettering,
another portions of the border, another
the script engraving, and so on, each
man doing that which he can do best.
For each part the original engraving is
made on soft steel plate called a bed
piece. When it is finished the steel is
hardened and the engraving is trans
ferred to soft steel roll by means of the
transfer-press. This roll is a small cyl
inder-shaped affair. When the engrav-
ing has been transferred to it it is also.
hardened, again put in the transfer
press, and the final transfer of the work
is made to a soft steel plate, which is
used by the printer. A part for
the entire face or back of
a note is transferred to these
rolls, and but one set of rolls is made for
"a note of a certain kind and denomina-
ton. The plate prepared for the printer
has on it the face or back of four notes,
generally all of a kind, and as many
plates can be made from an original set
of rolls as is desired. If you will closely
examine a note-take a dollar for ex-
ample-you will see that all the black
and white work is not the work OF an
engraver. In the center of the face of
the note where are the words lone sill
yer dollar" and little to the right of
this, where the large figure lone" is,
you Will md the words and the figure
eacn set In pattern too precise to be
the work OF human fingers. These pat
terms are the work of the geometrical
lathe, wonderful machine that does
much to complicate the work of the
counterfeiter-and it may as we'll be
said here that to render counterfeitiny
impossible is the great aim of the work.
ers in this bureau. The work of the
geometrical lathe can be distinguished
from the engraver's in that all its lines
are white, while the engraver's are
black. The making of pattern b, the
lathe is tedious and dificult matter.
The pattern is first traced on glass, and
sometimes it requires q half dozen diff