The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-02-11

i
/ now doing time in the penitentiary.
! IL has been suggested many times the
! cOunterfeiters could now afford TO make
| bogus silver coins out of the same alloy
| precisely as is employed by Uncle Sam
I namely, nine-tenths silver and One-tenth
| copper, the market price Of the white
metal having fallen to so low point.
| Thus, II the design and form of the bad
! piece were faithfully reproduced after the
| original, 1t would not be distingulShable
| from the latter. Up TO date, however,
nothing of this sort has been attempted;
nor is 1t likely to be tried inasmuch as
| criminals engaged in this industry are not
| content with moderate profits. The risk
! being great, proportiOnate gains are de-
| manded. Besides, the false currency
must pass through several HAMS ordi-
| narlly before getting into circulation. A
| report was spread recently that an enter
prise on the lines here indicated was to
be started on large scale in Mexico, but
IL was doubtless untrue
WILL THE GOLD SUPPLY BE EXHAUSTED
The two most eminent living writer's on
! the precious metals, Suess and Soetbeer,
| nave recently published very alarming
statement II is to the effect that the
total amount of gold dug out of the earth
! annually suhtceS only to supply the pres
| ent demand for that valuable substance
for use in the arts. Not a bit of the new
! product Of the mines is available for coin
age. Trinket use and waste in manufac-
ture exhaust the whole yield. If this is
correct, then gold must vanish from cir
culatlon before long, because the output
| OF the gold mines of the world is dimish-
| ing rather than increasing and there are
! few fields left to explore But Uncle
| Sans metallurglsts say that it is not so.
| The writers quoted failed to consider the
| fact that the gold employed in the arts is
/ md t.
| through a sort of cycle
| Articles of lewelrv often disappear, but
| are seldom lost. When through accident
| they pass out of the possession of the we'll
TODD, they go to the poor and sharp-eyed,
| who sell them or pawn them. Some Jew
elry is lost by fire and some in the sea,
| and these losses are absolute and hope
less; but jewelry otherwise is certain,
practically all of it, TO find its way sooner
or later to the pawnshops or into the
| hands of dealers in old gold. Thus it is
melted up eventually and reappears again
in other shapes. This is what is termed
the invisible supply of that metal.
CAUSES OF LOSS.
There are a number of unavoidable
causes of loss of gold. The first and most
| important of these is by abrasion Jew
elry loses much weight in that way, es-
pecially rings, which are usally IS carat,
less, but still considerably from wear
All gold leaf is a total loss to the gold
stock of the world. Where used for dec
orative purposes it is never recovered. 1t
is not employed for filling teeth nearly so
much as formerly, porous gold" being
substituted. But, of course, the gold
utilized for teeth is total loss, and in the
aggregate it is enormous. If it be sup
posed that the average dweller in cities
of this country has so cents worth of
gold in his or her month, which is
placing the figure very low, it will be
seen how great is the waste in this form.
zach succeeding generation takes so
many millions of dollars worth of the
metal from the worlds stock in this way.
IN WORKSHOPS.
Some gold is lost in remelting, though
all possible means are taken to reduce it
to the lowest possible figure. Not only are
the floors swept and the dirt treated for
| the recovery of the yellow substance, but
the wooden planks are burned eventually
with the same object Even the shoes of
| each man who works with the metal are
subjected to the chemistry of fire, YIELD
ing a small button of the precious
material. At Tiffany's workshop in New
York each artisan engaged in polishing
gold stands in front of big funnel, with
a wide mouth, which has a strong suction
draft. This draft takes in all dust and
floating particles from the air. 1t swal-
lows the filaments ground from the
bufing Wheels and these. with whatever
else has been caught, are deposited in a
receptacle, forming a sort of felt. This
felt is scraped out, pressed into bricks and
burned, being thus made to yield the gold
it contains. Incidentally, the workmen
get pure air.
COMMERCIAL BRICKS.
The gold that is utilized at the mint for
making commercial bars, so called. is sun
posed to be set aside for employment in
the arts. These bricks are 999-l 900 fine
that is to say, as near pure as can be-
But, as a matter Of fact, they are used as
money to a large extent by jewellers and
bankers. They can be got of any size from
500 up, stamped by the government with
their exact value. Thus they are made
to serve as big coins Manufacturing
jewellers find it convenient to utilize the
, ordinary money gold in their work, and
they do so to great extent, because the
proportion Of nine-tenths of gold and one
| tenth copper is always the same and they
know just what it will do in metallargical
work.
GREAT NUGGETS.
The National Museum has recently
| placed on exhibition gilded casts of many
| of the greatest nuggets of gold ever found
| The biggest nuggets have come from Aus
tralia, and these are also the purest.
| They run as high as 992-1000 fine Great
est in size was the Welcome" found at
Ballarat. 1t weighed 2,21S ounces, and
was worth somewhat over Sal 900. Next
| comes the PRECIOUS" found at Berlin,
| New South Wales, valued at $50. $40 II
| tipped the scales at 1,770 ounces. The
"Nicount Canterbury" weighed 1,l21
ounces and fetched S22 900. The
"VisCountes Canterbury weighed 1884
ounces and was valued at $4,000 On the
claim of man named Schlemm, at Dun
molly, two great nuggets We're found, one
weighing 53S ounces and the other AS
ounces. The former was worth Sl0,0O0aud
the latter 50, 900. The Kun Too, " dug up
at Berlin, weighed us ounces and was
worth $4,000. II was named after the
| Chinaman who discovered it, Another.
likewise found by Chinaman and called
the KUN Tow, 81 sold for $1,000 though
only 240 ounces in weight, being very
pure, The Beauty" found at Bendigo,
weighed 242 ounces and was valued at
q, 400. The "Needful" found at Berlin,
weighed four ounces more than the last
| and brought about 500 more. For many
years biologists have been disputing as to
how nuggets of gold are formed, but the
mystery remains unsOlved to-day. All of
these masses of precious metal were long
ago melted up and turned into coin, be-
cause it did not pay TO have so much
money LIVING idle Their 1flyapaeoae an,