Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-05-10

SERIOUS QUESTION OF cARATs-woRK OF THE
ASSAY oTFIcE-wEIeHr OF slO0, 900 GoLp-Ir
DOESN'T PAT TO STEAL SILVER.
HERE ARE three OF the biggest
I--lrooms full Of gold and silver in the
as ~ world in the Treasury building, at
the corner OF 18th street and Penn
~ sylvsniA avenue. One compart-
ment, 100 feet long, GO feet wide and - feet
high. is g solid mass OF bright, unused silver
dollars Another vault, somewhat less in size,
is filed with gold coins and silver dollars
mixed Each Of these great strong rooms con-
tains ss5. .OO0 Besides, there is a third
vault, which at present holds ESQ, 900, 00o-part
silver and part gresnbacks.
With all this change in pocket the Treasury
feels so rich that il does not care TO purchase
any more precious metal. SO, if you have any
old gold and silver that you want to dispose of
you cannot sell it TO the government at Wash
lngton, but must send il TO some assay office,
such as the one in Philadelphia. However.
the assay Office will not buy il unless II
amounts TO at least 800 worth, and the
chances are that you will not have as much as
that to get rid Of in lump. Accordingly, you
will be obliged TO go to one of the dealers,
found in every city, who make business of
buying secondhand silver and gold. Ii is a
very curious trade, and a member of the craft
who keeps a shop on Pennsylvania avenue
told STAR writer yesterday some funny things
about it
MELTING THE METAL.
Il buy anything that Eas gold or silver in
it," he said. "All Is fish that comes to my net
watches and chains, rings and brooches, cuff
and collar buttons, spoons. forks. baby mugs
and what not To begin with melt the things
up IN little three-sIded pots of kind OF earth
enware that liz strengthened by an admiXture
OF sand SO that they will not be broken by the
heat. set the pots IN among the red-hot
Goals and the metal soon becomes fused Gold,
so treated, doesn't look yellow, but grayish.
like lead. Ornaments of gold. fresh made. are
always a sort of lead-color-they must be pol
ished and treated with acid 10 make them
pretty. Likewise ii is with silver, which re-
sem5les chalk in appearance until a polishing
process Is applied. such Is the effect of heat
But, as was about to say. when the metal
articles are melted l let the lump cool in the
! pot aud then take ii out for the purpose of
| testing Its value, which | am able 20 do by a
very simple process. Let Us suppose that an
old gold watch and chain are being
| treated. rub an edge of the lump 20 which
| they have been reduced on this smooth little
| oil-stone Just as now rub the edge of NV
| watch-case. lou see ii leaves a small yellow
streak on the stone-just color. Now the
| assay Office provides me for $3.50 with this
thing. which looks like key-ring with several
| little spikes strung npon 1t.
| EACH SPIKE Is TIPPED WITH GOLD
of a certain number of carats. Spike No. 1 is
20 carats, spike No. is Is carats, spike No. s
is l6 carats and so on down 20 carats Ny
| guess is that this watch il about i6 carats but
| l wish to know positively. So alongside of the
| yellow streak on the oil stone | rub second
yellow streak with the spike that is tipped with
| guaranteed l6-carat gold. Then ] put drop
| of water from this bottle on the oil stone. -
as to cover the two little streaks. and add to
the water a drop of sulphuric acid from this
| other bottle. In moment the streak made
| by the watch case turns green and begins 10
fade, while the l6-carat streak of the spike re-
| mains yellow longer. In other words. the To-
| carat gold resists the action of the acid better
| than the gold of my watch case and is there
fore evidently purer. Obviously my watch
case Is not as good as 10 carat Therefore
| try again with fresh streak from the watch
case and a streak from the l4-carat spike only 10
| find as you observe, that the watch-case streak
| fades first under the same test. l make third
| trial with a streak from the watch case and a
streak from the l2-carat spike, and this time
| the two turn green and fade precisely together.
| Accordingly. / know absolutely that my watch
case is l2-carat gold, no more and no less. II
the streak it made had faded little sooner
| than the l4-carat and little later than the II
carat, should have known that the case wa,
l3-carat and SO with all the other odd numbers
| Pure gold Is "a carats exactly-as you might
say that "A parts make whole one-but it il
not made up for commercial use above q
carats, which means 20 parts of gold and o.
baser metal. and we cannot apply this sort Of
test successfully above 20 carats. A so golC
piece is 20 carats precisely IN quality"
QUESTION OF cARArs.
"After you have ascertained that the lumI
Of gold is SO many carats, how do you reckon
its value?'
EAT cents carat per pennyweight THAI
| sounds difficult TO understand, but 1t is really
very simple. Suppose the lump weighs IL
| pennywelghts and Is ascertalned to be 20 carats
| / multiply the number of carats by the number
| of pennywelghts, which in this case gives 200
so pay 200 times cents, or IS, for the lump
| Then L send the lump by express to the Phila
| delphia assay office and they send me a check
in return for its value. But, as l said, canno
sell them less than 500 worth at a time, and 81
l forward lot of the stuff together. 1t is good
investment, for the assay Office pays me abou
10 per cent more for the gold than | bought i
for. There is no risk and the money is quickly
turned over"
show is il about silver"
"The government don't buy silver; bu
| chunks of metal sent to the assay Office are re
turned in the shape of pure silver bars. which
are always saleabie in the market. Uncle San
charges per cent for the work. The reason
for the rule about S100 worth of gold is tn.
| government doesn't want TO redeem OLE
watches and rings for everyone who cares Il
bring his WORKOUT jewelry."
Suppose one were able to get into the Treas
ury vaults and carry away 100000 In golC
| coin
Garry it away! How would you do il? Or
your back, chr Why, you don't appear to hsv,
much notion as to how much gold weighs
Calculate it for yourself. A $50 gold piec,
weighs an ounce; therefore one pound OF gold
is worth $40 and 100000 would weigh So
pounds avoirdupois. Rather too big lift Il
get away with surreptitiously all by yourself,
fancy. As for silver, it don't pay to steal it al
all One hundred pounds of silver dollars
about as much as you could carry-are wortl
only $500. Eighteen thousand such dollar
would turn the scales at a short ton."