The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1890-08-23
GOLD DUST.

PRECIOUS GOLD DUST.
Kept In q Table Drawer At the Govern.
ment Printing Once.
Seven thousand dollars worth of gold
lust in q table drawer! Poke your
fingers into the yellow stuff and notice
how soft and agreeable to the feeling it
is, says the Washington Star, while the
attendant in charge watches you care.
fully and sees that you do not get away
with any OF it. 1t is smooth to the
touch, because 1t is all composed OF
gold-beater's film rubbed to almost i'm.
palpable powder. For the same rea-
son. too, it is absolutely pure and virgin
metal, twenty-four carats fine.
Tho drawer is in charge of q pretty
young CIR at the Government printing
Office. Her work there is to stamp gold
lettering and o~rnamentation upon book
covers. Tho precious substance ONE
to her in the shape of little rectangular
sheets of foil inexpressibly thin, laid
between layers Of tissue paper made up
in book form, each book holding TWEEN
ty-four gold sheets. Handling them is
a matter requiring great skill, though
you might not imagine it from casual
inspection. To begin with, say the
young woman places on the table before
her IN ordinary leather book ove
She takes from the little gold book o
sheet of the foil, not with her fingers,
but by catching it up with q small pad
of raw cotton. Laying down the sheet
of pure yellow gold upon a little slab,
she cuts it into three pieces with q sharp
knife. She makes it smooth by blow
ing gently upon it with her breath.
One of tho pieces she applies to the
back OF the cover where the title is to
go; another she also puts on the back,
whero tho name of the author is to be,
while tho third biggest piece is spread
over the middle of one flap of the cover,
whore an ornamental design is wanted.
Next, after smoothing the piece Of
gold film down firmly on the leather,
tho pretty girl slides tho cover beneath
asmall press that stands on the table.
In tho press, face downward, is o die en-
graved in relief with the name of the
book that is to be incased in the cover,
the authors name and the ornamental
design referred to. The die is kept
heated by gas. A movement Of a 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 in those spots.
The die is lifted, the cover is withdrawn
from the press, and tho gold is rubbed
of with a piece of soft leather on tho
end Of a stick. Wherever tho die has
not touched it tho film comes of read
lily, leaving tho lettering and the design
adhering so closely to the leather that
they could not be removed, save by hard
scraping. Finally tho young woman
rubs tho leather with a chunk of burnt
rubber, which takes off all undesirable
PARTICLES, SO that the ornamental pattern
and the name of book and author shine
IL with beautiful clearncss Of outline
in twonty.four carat gold. The whole
process las taken good many words to
describe, but it is actually performed
very quickly, tho covers being spread
with gold, stamped with tho heated die,
and rubbed off in rapid succession. Each
fresh sort of book-cover has to have q
new die, Of course.
Tho operator is very careful in rub
bling off the loose gold after each stamp
ing, so as to lose mono of it. As she uses
the leather-tippcd 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 quito big and deep, and
will hold $4,000 worth of the dust. You
would not imagine it to be any very
precious substance if you found a guam
tity of it in somc odd place; it looks as
much like powdered tinsel as any thing
else. However, it is worth $40 an ounce,
. and when a drawer full is collected the
gold is forwarded to the mint in Phila-
delphia, which subjects it to assay and
sends back a check for its value.
Tho burnt rubber used for the final
polishing of of the gold lettering, etc.,
is simply India-rubbcr which has been
subjected to a peculiar fire process that
makes it very spongiose and absorbent.
So remarkable is its latter quality that
chunk of it as big as three of your fin
gers Will Jake up IuOco tuiA c1o WoEt1
of gold in its pores. When, after some
months Of use such q piece of burnt
rubber is loaded with oil the gold it will
comfortably carry, it is sent, with lot Of
others in tho same condition, to the mint
to be assayed.
Real gold is only used in this way for
particularly fine books. Designs and
lettering of the sort for ordinary vol
umes are done at the Government print
ing Office in nearly the same manner,
but with a 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 a brushing machine.
The Electric Express Train.
DR.. Louis Bell says the electric ex-
press train in the ear future will in
ell probability contain one or more pow
erful motors on the axis Of its drivers,
snd aggregating perhaps 1000 horse
~ ~.