The weekly messenger. [volume] (St. Martinsville [i.e. St. Martinville] La.) 1886-1948, 1891-12-26
UNCLE SANS Ink.
A MILLION POUNDS ARE RE
OUIRED YEARLY.
1t is Used to Print Paper Money and
Revenue Stamps-Mixing
the COlors-DFying
the Notes.


money and revenue stamps. 1t is all
manufactured on the premises of the
bureau of engraving, the Treasury De-
partment buying the materials in the
shape of ''dry colors" and inseed oil.
For greenbacks $50, 900 pounds of the
finest chrome-green are needed annually.
OF other supplies of this sort the quanti-
ties consumed are:
Paris white, $4,000 pounds; vermil-
ion, deep shade, $500 pounds; Venetian
red, 1900 pounds; Prussian blue, 1000
pounds; chrome yellow, lemon shade,
1000 pounds; orange mineral, 1000
pounds; Indian red, $40 pounds; Italian
burnt sienna, 500 pounds; Chinese blue,
100 pounds; hard black, Is, 900 pounds;
soft black, 35, 900 pounds.
All these materials come in the shape
of fine powder, and are stored in great
room in the basement of the bureau of
engraving. At one end there is a huge
box, the lifted top of which discloses
tons of intensely black substance. A
pinch if it feels and looks like so much
powdered charcoal. This is the ''soft"
black, and, for the purposes of the
printer, it is mixed with q ''hard"
black, many barrels of which stand close
by. With the mixture of these two is
put certain proportion CT Prussian blue
to give brightness, and all three are
stirred together in big sheet-iron re-
ceptacle by a machine. This prepare.
ton, in the slang of the bureau, is called
"legal tender" because with it the faces
of all the notes and certificates are made.
The green for the backs is close by in
casks, each of them filled to the brim
with beautiful emerald powder. Ma
tional bank notes, of course, have brown
backs, and the tint for them is composed
of Venetian red, orange mineral, YER
milion-the very best quality from quick
silver ore-and some hard black. For
the golden figures which adorn the faces
of the gold certificates chrome yellow is
mingled with vermilion and white lead.
The tint for the backs of these same GER
titicates is produced with different
mixture of the same ingredients. There
is one big box of seal red-a preparation
of carmiue, carmine lake and vermilion
with which the bureau used to print the
seals upon paper money. Now, how
ever, the seals are always put on after
ward at the treasury building with typo
SraphIca, ink.
Whatever the mixture made, it is
sifted, thoroughly stirred, combined with
linseed oil and sent upstairs by elevator to
! a room where several machines are con-
tinually grinding. On one OF these the
sIud is thrown with Il scoop, and after
while the revolving cylinders reject it in
the shape of beautiful, smooth printing
ink. One machine does green, another
! black, another red and So Oh. Finally
the finished product Is put aside in iron
! buckets, which stand in rows on the
floor. Each bucket is labeled. One
bears the inscription, "Custons Wines
and Liquors." another "National Bank
Brown" another "Legal Tender" and
so on. Half a dozen pals are Tiled with
preparation of cnrome-yellow and ver-
milton for postoliice money orders.
Others are marked 900 Cigars Blue"
Tue customs and internal revenue stamps
have all their peculiar color mixtures. An
inferior grade of black is used for print
ing the revenue stamps, because they are
not expected to wear for any length OF
time, and the ink for them is made thin
ner,to suit the paper. AS fast as requisi-
tons are made for ink it is supplied to
the printing division. Each printer re-
ceives every morning his allowance in a
tin receptacle, and sharp account is
kept of every bit that is used.
The bureau of engraving is at present
making experiments in the direction of
drying the paper money, after it has
been printed, by natural method in
stead of artiicially, as hitherto. To
save time the freshly made sheets of bills
have always been dried by coils of steam
pipes, but it has been shown that this
process destroys tie fiber OF the paper
and renders it not nearly so serviceable.
Furthermore, the quick cooking of the
ink bakes it on the surface instead of
permitting it to become gradually incor-
porated with the tissue. AS result it
rubs, and the designs become blurred
after a small amount of use. 1t is be-
lievcd that much better result, will be
secured by permitting the paper to dry
gradually in an ordinary or, at all events,
very moderate temperature. Among
the curious suggestions made to the
Government recently, when it sought
ideas on the subject Of distinctive paper,
was one to the effect that bits of mica
should be incorporated with the linen.
The chief engraver is of tie opinion that
of all possible projections against couu-
terIeitlng the best is really irst-class