The Opelousas courier., 1894-05-12
HOW PAPER MONEY is MADE.
Work of Uncle Sans Expert Engrav-
-ers at Washington.

If you will look at the pictures upon a
one-doIar bill, you will see that the por-
trait of Martha Washington or of Stanton
is composed altogether of curved or
| straight lines--the only kind of engraving
that is allowed to be done in the bureau;
because unless it is done in this manner,
and unless the lines are cut very deep, the
engravings cannot be used. Now this
portrait was engraved in a piece of steel
by the use of q very sharp little instru-
ment known as q graver.
Every little scratch on the steel plate
will, in printing, show q black line, SO
you will see how very careful the engraver
has to be that he shall not make any false
scratches, and that the lines shall be just
SO long and just so broad.
Now, steel engraving is the direct OPP
posite Of wood engraving. The scratches
and cuts made ON a wooden block will
be white in the print, and it is only the
! uncut portions of the block that print
black; while on the steel the unscratched
portion leaves the paper white.
When a design has been cut on a steel
plate, and is ready to be printed. the ink
is put on the plate Or block, and all the
cuts and scratches become filled with
ink. Then the ink is carefully rubbed
off of the surface, so that hone remains
except what is in the lines. When a
piece of dampened paper is placed on the
plate and subjected to very heavy pres
sure, it sinks INTO the lines; and wheni it
is taken off it draws the ink out with it,
and thus the picture is printed on tho
paper.
1t takes an engraver about six weeks
or two months to complete one portrait,
and a man who engraves the portraits
never does any other kind of engraving.
Each engraver does only a certain portion
of the work on a note; 40 one is permitted
to engrave an entire note; so that be-
sides the portrait engravers there are
some who do nothing but engrave the
figures, the seal, the lettering, the bor-
der, etc. In this way it would be i'm
possible for an engraver to make a
complete engraving for his own use, if
he were dishonest enough to want to do
such a thing.
Besides this manual work, some of the
engraving is done by machinery, as for
example, the background of the portrait
and of the borders, and the shading of
the letters this being done by what is
known as the ruling-machine, which can
rule several hundred perfectly straight
lines within an inch. The intricate scroll
and lace-like work around the figures on
the face and the back of the note is done
by a wonderful machine known as the
geometric lathe. This machine consists
of a large number of wheels Of all sizes
and in all sorts of arrangements, together
with a complicated mechanism of eccen-
tries and rods, all of which is incompre-
hensible to any one but an expert
machinist.
BY a proper adjustment of its parts
the delicate diamond point that moves
about over the face of the steel is made to
work out a perfect and artistic pattern
with greater accuracy and much more
speed than could be done by hand; and
hence this delicate and intricate part Of
the engraving is one of the greatest OBJ
stacles with which the counterfeiter has
to contend, for he finds it next to i'm
possible to initiate it correctly.
Fortunately for Uncle Sam the geome-
trio lathe is a very complicated and very
expensive machine, and the counter
feitcr is generally a poor man; and even
if he did manage to lay up enough money
to buy the lathe, it is hardly likely he
would live long enough to learn how to
use it properly for there are only four
men in the world who understand how
to operate it.
Indeed, the man who now has charge
Of the geometric lathe at the Bureau
Of Engraving and Printing is the only
one in the United States at the present
time who knows how to manage it; and
if anything should happen to him, it
might tangle matters up for a while in
tits important branch of our Uncle
Sans big government.-[St. Nicholas.