Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-08-16
COMING JEWELRY.
ONE OF THE MANY SECRETS OF THE
 PAwN6RoKERs' TRADE.
A Little Dark Room In the Rear of a Chi. cago Loan onioe, Where Many Golden Heiriooms Are Melted and Cast Into Bars Which Are Traded For Good Coin.

A Littie Dark Room In the Rear of a Chl-
 cago Loan onioe. Where Many Golden
 Heiriooms Are Melted and Cast Into Bars
 Which Are Traded For Good Coin.
 Looks funny, doesn't it! All the same there arc a dozen of those ma chimes going at least once a week in this city that the public never heard about before. When you understand it, you will be able to tell your friends what becomes of the gold and silver they leave with their uncle and never re- deem. On the dead now, don't give me away, and will tell you some of the secrets of the pawnhrokers' trade"
 The remark was made in little dark room in the rear of one of the big loan offices not far from Madison and Dear born streets The proprietor went on to say tho reports show that 10 to 15 per cent of all articles placed in ''hock" are never called for. Then often gold and silver are purchased outright by the pennyweight or ounce, and in one way or another a large amount of the precious metals is accumulated To turn old style goods into ready cash is the problem that confronts the loan
 
 and fresh goods fill the cases in the counters and show windows. and the old material goes into new golden eagles, with Uncle Sam's stamp upon them.
 On the floor of the back room. reach ed after setting half a dozen electric alarms going and the pressing of nu- merous buttons, was Q peculiar contriv- ance looking like G inch tile stood on end, with brass barrel covered with pipes by its side. A copper pan, some iron tools and some bowls that looked like common fiowerpots lay on the floor.
 This copper barrel" said the pro- prietor, ''is filled with naphtha- These pipes lead to this tile or furnace. This handle here is for the forcing of air be- hind the naphtha so it will make q strong blast These pots are crucibles. Into the furnace We place the crucible; into the crucible goes the gold. Hot, isn't it? So hot that we are compelled to wear colored glasses to see what's going on. But that's nothing to the way the thing is done in Uncle Sam's fur naces. Now, here goes to fill the cruel ble"
 Into the stone jar went gold watch
 
 crests and initials, souvenir spoons and breastpins of forgotten dates. rings that could have spoken of wedding bells and birthdays in the long ago, golden charms, scarfpins with the jewels re moved and odds and ends collected in q weeks trade. The estimated value of the hatful of stock was $I, ,00O in pure gold. Into the melting collection went Q lot of borax. This was to make the gold flow when sufficiently melted There was no smoke. nothing but a sickly smell of naphtha, the noise of the blast and the glittering whiteness of the cru cible.
 To get a closer look at the melting gold pair of green eyeglasses was fur nished. As the broker stirred the con tents of tho crucible with an iron poker black bubbles would come to the top and pieces of coarser metal would be seen struggling to the surface only to sink back into the yellow gold now turn ed to fluid. The broker lifted the cruel ble out of the furnace and poured its white hot contents into an iron mold The mold rested in pan of water. All the gold settled into the mold, and the borax, turning black as it hit the water, | staid on top. In few minutes the borax was knocked off and out fell a bar of gold weighing several pounds, eight inches long and probably three i fourths of an inch square. After clean ing the bar was laid aside for shipment to the treasury.
 "we do this once a week." said the proprietor as he shut off the valve to the naphtha barrel. From here the bars go to Washington by express. Before its value is returned We will pay out near ly $4 on $l, 900. At Uncle Sam's works tho bar will be remelted by fiercer heat. Then the melted mass will be poured into water, where it will form into shot or pellets of gold and silver and copper. These pellets are then plac- cd in acid and the different metals sep aratcd. No. you can't fool the govern ment for 6 minute. Science does the work in good shape After this process the treasury ships gold eagles for the gold and silver coin for the silver metal contained in the bar. So. you see. the old battered watch case, broken chain or out of date Orna- ment comes back in new coin of the realm Over s2OO. 900 worth of gold bars is annually sent from Chicago hro- kers in this way. and not one person in 10, GOO ever secs how the melting is done. Of course many gold coins are made into jewelry and in course of time are sent hack through our crucibles once mors This Is on account of change of style in gold ornaments of all kinds which is constantly going on Any profit1 Oh. yes. We figure all such things. An article pawned means to us only its weight in the crucible with q profit deducted This profit may be 6 or it may bc l2 per cent A chain weighing sIO worth of gold we buy for Is. jO CT some less The $l. JO is for profit. handling and the risk Yes. it's quite a business. and many family his tory has been told in the golden heir looms that havo fallen into a loan brO' ker's cr,zcibla ''-Chicago Tribune