Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-06-28

Kept In q Table Drawer at the Gov
eminent Printing Office.


- EVEN THOUSAND dollars worth of
lE gold dust in table drawer! Poke your
AN fingers into the yellow stuff and notice
H. thow soft and agreeable to the feeling it
%9SS<S is, while the attendant in charge watches
you carefully and sees that you do not get away
with any Of it. 1t is smooth to the touch be-
cause it is all composed Of gold-beater's film
rubbed to almost impalpable powder. For the
same reason. too, it is absolutely pure and vir-
gin metal, "a carats fine.
The drawer is in charge of a pfetty young
girl at the Government Printing Office. Her
work there is to stamp gold lettering and
substance comes to her in the shape of little
rectangular sheets of foil inexprsssibly thin.
laid between layers of tissue paper made up in
book form-each book holding twenty four
gold sheets Handling them is y matter re-
quiring great skill, though you might not i'm
imagine it from casual inspection. To begin
with, say, the young woman places on the table
before her ordinary leather book cover
She takes from the little gold book a sheet Of
the foil. not with her fingers, but catching it up
with small pad OF raw cotton. Laying down
the sheet of pure yellow gold upon a little slab
she cuts 1t into three pieces with a sharp knife
with her breath. One of the pieces she applies
to the back of the cover where the title is to go;
another she also puts on the back where the
name OF the author Is to be, while the third
biggest piece is spread over the middle Of one
flap of the cover, where an ornamental design
is wanted.
Next. after smoothing the pieces of gold film
down firmly on the leather, the pretty girl slides
the cover beneath a small press that stands on
the table; In the press, face downward, is a die
engraved in relief with the name of the book
that Is to be Enclosed in the cover, the authors
name and the ornamental design referred to-
The die is kept heated by gas movement Of
lever worked by hand brings the die down
upon the cover, and the raised lettering and
design burn the gold foil wherever there is
contact, so that it is made to adhere to the
leather i'll those spots. The die is lifted the
cover is Withdrawn from tho press, and the
gold Is rubbed off with piece Of soft leather
on the end of q stick. Wherever the die has
not touched it the film comes off readily,
leaving the lettering and the design adherinz
80 closely to the leather that they could not be
removed gave by hard scraping Finally the
young woman rubs the leather we'll with q
chunk of burnt rubber, which takes of all I'm
desired particles, so that the ornamental pat
tern and the names of book and author shine
out with beautiful clearness Of outline in
24-carat gold. The whole process has taken a
good many words to describe, but it is actually
performed very quickly, tho covers being
spread with gold. stamped with the heated die,
and rubbed off in rapid succession. Each fresh
sort OF book cover has to have q new die, of
course.
The operator is very careful in rubbing of
the loose gold after each stamping SO as to lose
none OF 1t. As she exercises the leather
tipped stick she permits the yellow stuff to fall
through a crack in the table top into the
drawer beneath in the shape Of dust 1t is
allowed to accumulate there until the drawer
is full. The drawer is quite big and deep and
will hold $4,000 worth of the dust You would
not imagine it to be any very precious sub
stance If you found quantity Of it in some odd
place; 1t looks as much like powdered tinsel as
anything else. However, it is worth $50 an
ounce, and when drawer full is collected the
gold is forwarded to the mint in Philadelphia,
which subjects it to assay and sends back
check for its value. The young woman is held
responsible for the safety of the gold in the
drawer; she carries the key to it about with
her always, and nobody but herself is allowed
access to 1T. There does not seem to be any
reason why she should not slyly pocket a small
quantity OF 1t occasionally if she so desired
though the number of books of gold foil
charged against her do serve as some sort of
check In the account as to the metal employed
in this way.
Tn. burnt rubber used for the final polishing
OH OF the gold lettering &C., is simply india
rubbe- which has been subjected to a peculiar
fire process that makes it very malleable and
absorbent. SO remarkable is its latter quality
that chunk of it as big as three OF your fingers
will take up more than SIS worth of gold in its
pores. When, after some months OF USE such
a piece OF burnt rubber is loaded with all the
gold 1t will comfortably carry it is sent with a
lot OF others in the same condition, to the mint
to be assayed.
In a room at the Government Printing Office
adjoining the one in which the drawer full of
gold Is kept you can see a man putting gold tt
ties on superb department ledgers and such
things altogether by hand. He laws the pieces
of gold foil on the backs of the bound and
| completed books and burns the lettering fast
with little wooden-handled dies THAT he keeps
heated IN a small gas stove. 1t requires great
skill to get the titles perfectly straight and
symmetrical. though black silk thread is used
to make preliminary lines across the gold film
for guide. Finally the gold is rubbed off
with leather-tipped stick and with burnt rub
Der as in the other case
Real gold is only used in this way for partic-
| ularly fine books. Designs and lettering of the
| sort for ordinary volumes are done at the Gov
eminent Printing Office i'll nearly the same
| manner, but with yellow composition called
German metal" which looks very much like
| the gold and IS decidedly cheaper. No trouble
| is taken TO save the wastage and each book
| cover, after being stamped by the hot die, is
| simply put through brushing machine.
An Important Engagement to Keep.
From the Indianapolis News.
I1s& - g. IL. n