The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1894-04-13

waste silver is allowed to get away
from the mint without chemical
treatment to extract the precious
metal. The melting pots, the slags,
the ashes from the furnaces, and
even the outside pickings from the
brick liuings of the furnaces are
ground and sifted to obtaia metallic
grains, and these grains are refined.
The residue from the sleeves is put
into a sweep machine, which ex-
tracts the smaller particles. And
the very minute particles of metal
pass in tfie water of the sweep ma
chine to settling watts and wells.
These wells are cleaned out at very
long intervals and they always
yield a little gold and silver.
The assayer takes from the cru
chile both top and bottom samples
of the melt. If it is of standard
fineness the ingots are passed to the
rolling room. The reason the
assayer takes his samples from the
molten metal is because the silver
alloy is very liable to segregation
that is, partial separation of the
silver from the copper-while cool
ing. An ingot has been known to
vary from 800 to 923 fine, and still
to average 900 fine.
When an ingot passes the assayer
it is taken to the rolling room, each
melt being separate. In the rolling
room the ingots are passed through
graduated sets of rolls, which re-
duce them to long strips of about
the thickness of the silver dollar.
When the ingot has gone through
the rolls nine times it is annealed
in an open wood furnace. This
anealing process takes about fifteen
minutes. After the annealing the
strips are passed through the rolls
four or five times more, and then
are taken to the draw bench to be
a little further reduced in thick
ness. Before they are drawn on
the draw bench they are creased
with tallow. The first few strips
put between the draw plates are
tested. A few planchets or blanks
are cut from them and weighed. If
they need a further reduction they
are drawn again. If, by any mis-
take, the strips should have been
drawn too thin, there is no remedy
but to send them to the melting
pot.
When the strips have been made
of the necessary thickness, they are
passed through machines which
punch out of each the circular
" blank" Before being passed on
these blanks are weighed with the
clippings and the defective ingots
to show just how much of the melt
has been lost; and this is carefully
noted. When the blanks have been
cut they are separated into drafts
of $4,000 each and passed on to
the adjusting-room. Here the fore
woman puts $50 blanks in each of
a number of pans. Each pan has a
number corresponding to the seat
occupied by the adjuster to whom
it is to go. The adjusters sit at
marble-top tables, each with a del
icately adjusted balance before her.
These balances are sensitive to 1-64
of a grain of weight. Each adjuster
has standard of weight, and with
this she tests for an hour or two the
proportion of the blanks running
above or below the standard i'm
in weight, so as to enable the CHIEF
weigher to adjust his delivery OF
heavy, light and standard weight
coins, so that the weight in bulk
shall correspond to the standard
prescribed by law. After an
average has been obtained each adj
juster takes a counter weight three
fourths of a grain above the stand
ard, and with that tests in the bal.
ance all Of the blanks. All that
fall below the weight of the counter
balance are put in pan by them,
selves and classed as "lights. y
Ali that weigh more than the
counterbaiance are filed until they
are reduced to its weight; then they
are put in another pan reserved fol
the ''heavies. s." The 1'heavies" are
taken to expert weighers, who test
them. The ''lights" are sent to
other experts, who have a counter