Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1892-06-03
BEATS HAIR SPLITTING.
Mighty Clever Rogues Who Split Bank
notes by Machinery.

AAASnty CAcVeT ktOSueS VINO SplAL 084k
| notes by Machinery.
| 1t is delicate operation to splita bank.
| note edgewise, but there are rogues who
| do it as easily as they could slice cheese.
| 1t has been practiced in France and South
American states several years, and the
men who do this work in the United States
are half again as skillful as the foreigners
| from whom they first learned the trick.
Officers of the Bank of England had al
ways held that no one was skillful enough
to split one of their banknotes. American
currency splitters can divide British
banknote as easily and as equally as they
can lay open one of this country's issue.
These clever rascals commonly use five
dollar and fifty dollar bills, which are split
edgewise. Then they manipulate them in
this way. The front of the five dollar bill
is deity fastened to the back of the fifty
dollar bill, and the back of the note of the
smaller denomination to the face of the
larger one. When that is accomplished
the maker has two fifty dollar bills that
will pass current almost anywhere. In
working off these split notes the shower
forces the fifty dollar face Of each trick
note on the victim, who rarely thinks it
necessary TO examine the other side He
scans the side exposed to him by the trick
ster, and of course accepts it as genuine.
By this device the splitter clears a profit
of forty-fve dollars on every two bank
notes he works off.
The work of splitting is done with ma
chine, which is manufactured in England.
1t consists of a FURNISHED solid steel roller,
two inches in diameter, hanging over a
smooth plate of the same metal. The
rollers ends rest in slotted uprights, and
it may be raised or lowered enthusiastically
by means OF screws as fine as those of the
finest watch. A main screw, as finely
threaded as the others, is turned auto
matically by clockwork, which stands at
the right end of the steel barrel. Over the
plate. and with the edge under the roller,
is firmly fixed knife. Its ends are locked
in grooves in fanges on either side of the
steel bed.
The knives are imported from Sheffield,
England. The blade is third of an inch
wide, three long in the clear and thinner
than hairs breadth No lancet has half
so keen an edge. Before bank bill is put
into the jaws of the machine it is made
limp by water and every faint of dirt is re-
moved. Then it is dried between pads of
lint, after which it is placed between deep
piles of the finest calendered paper and
left pinned in screw press from twenty
four to thirty-six hours. When it comes
out it looks as bright. clean and fresh as
new banknote and what is of more inn
portance to the operator, it is almost as
stiff as cardboard. Then it is ready for
splitting. One of it's ends is inserted I'M
der the roller on the side farthest from the
knife
Then the weights of the clock are set
going, and the bright metal roller turns
so slowly that its motion is scarcely per-
ceptible. AS the banknote is worked
through it's end is met by the knife edge
The knife is set so delicately that it passes
exactly through the width of the bill One
half Of the banknote passes above the knife
and the other part moves under the blade.
The blade is so delicately set above the
plate that there is just space enough to let
the half of the bill pass through The
neatness of the fit keeps the banknote taut
to the last.
An hour is required to run single bank
note through the splitter. After being
halved the parts are given gentle steam
ing to raise the fiber on the cut sides. in
order that when forced together with
$500 pound pressure the threads will knit
into perfect facsimile of genuine bank
note. Then it is ready for the sucker mar
ket.-Cincinnati Commercial Gazette