The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-01-12
MAKING PAPER MONEY.
The Geometric Lathe, Which Only
One Man Knows How to Operate.

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If you will look at the picture upon a
one dollar BILL you will! see that the
portrait of Martha Washington or of
Stanton is composed altogether of curved
lines-the only Kind of engraving that is
allowed to be Gone in the bureau; because
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 a very sharp little instrument
known as a GraVer.
Every little scratch on the steel plate
will in printing. show A 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, t5el-engrdving is the direct op-
posite of wood-engraying. The scratches
and cuts made on a wooden block will
be white IN the print, and it is only the
black; while on the steel the unscratched
portions leave the paper white.
When a design has been cut on a steel
plate, and it 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 none remains
except what is in the lines. When a piece
of dampened paper is placed on the plate
and subjected to a very heavy pressure,
It sinks into the lines; and when it is
taken off 1t draws the ink out with it.
and thus the picture is printed on the
paper.
1t takes an engraver about six weeks or
two months to complete one portrait, and
man who engraves the portrait never
does any other kind of engraving Each
engrarer does only a certain portion of
the work on note; no one is permitted
70 engrave an entire note; so that besides
Inc portrait engraverS, there are some
who do nothing but engraye the figures.
the seal, the lettering the border etc.
In this way it would be impossible for an
engraver to make complete engraving for
a fiuha
10 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 perfeatly, straight lines
within an inch. The intricate scroll and
lace like work around the figures on the
lace and the back of the note is done BY
wonderful machine known as the geo
metric Iatne. This machine consists of a.
large number of wheels of all sizes and
IN all sorts of arrangements, together
with a complicated mechanism of &C.
centres and rods, all of which is incom-
chinist
by a proper adjustment of it's parts the
delieate diamond point that moves about
over the face of the steel is made to work
out perfect and artistic pattern with
greater accuracy and much more speed
than could be done by hand and hence
TINS delicate and intricate part of the en-
craving is one of the greatest obstacles
with which the counterfeiter has to con-
tend, Tor he finds it next to impossible to
initiate it correctly
Fortunately for Uncle Sam, the geo.
metric lathe is very complicated and
feiter 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
70 use II properly; for there are only four
Ten in the world VINO understand how to
operate it.
Indeed, the man who now has charge
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 this
important branch of our Uncle Sans big
government-St. Nicholas.