St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-07-29

collalnS upper halves OF lower
halves, and the name of the clerk
who counted the half-notes con-
tanned in the package. The pack
ages of halves are counted in differ
ent parts of the treasury building.
The upper halves go to the office of
the register of the treasury to be
recounted, while the lower halves go
to the office of the secretary of the
treasury to be recounteG. All of
this work is done with great rapidity
by the
DEFT FINGERS
Of lady clerks, and although millions
of dollars pass through their hands
annually, errors seldom occur. When
the counting OF a lot of halves in
one office is completed and found to
agree with the count of the CORE
spending halves in the other office,
the half-notes are passed under q
canceling machine and come out
with two holes, about the size of a
three-cent piece, punched in each
end. %. RIA
After cancellation the bundles of
half-notes are delivered to the COM
mittee of destruction. The commit
tee is furnished by the several di-
visions of the. treasury with the
schedules showing the kind and de-
nominations. OF money to be de-
stroyed and every package must be
found to agree, with it's description
in the schedules. Heavy boxes,
locked and guarded, are used to re-
move the money and securities from
one part of the building to another,
or to the bureau of engraving and
printing, where all condemned bonds,
postage stamps, internal revenue
stamps, distinctive paper and notes,
except bank notes, are totally de-
stroyed by maceration or burning.
National bank notes are macerated
in the treasury department building.
All of the trimmings from sheets
of notes, bonds and revenue stamps,
and the punchings from cancella-
ton Of notes and securities are care
fully collected and macerated with
the condemned paper money.
The average money value of the
notes destroyed daily by authority
of the secretary of the treasury is
about $1,000 900. This goes on through
out the whole year, Sundays and
holidays excepted. The largest
amount destroyed in one day by our
own or any other government was
S152, 048, $50. This occurred on the
do Of OF h11r
Of engraving and printing, and con-
sisted of unissued United States
bonds in denominations of ffties,
hundreds, thousands, ten thousands,
twenty thousands and fifty thous-
ends. The next largest amount was
destroyed several years ago, and
consisted of a series of bonds amount
ing to $12S, 200. The boxes of
money, counted and recorded at the
treasury department. are
CAREFULLY WEIGHED
at the bureau of engraving and print
ing before the money is thrown into
the macerators The average
weight for each day is about 1,S00
pounds, the quantity being destroyed
being limited by the strength of the
maceratins machines rather than by
the scarcity of the supply of mate
rial to be destroyed.
The boxes Of money having been
weighed and unlocked by the COM
mittee, the packages are placed upon
a low platform where the cords bind
ing them are cut and the money is
rapidly fed into a sheetiron hopper,
through which it passes into the
macerator in the room below. Thous-
ands upon thousands of dollars
worth of money are piled in con-
fusion upon the platform at one
time, and, although it is handled
like so much waste paper, not the
smallest piece is allowed to escape
destruction. A griZZled veteran Of
the civil war feeds the 'grist into
the capacicus NAV Of the mill, While
a stalwart colored man punches and
twists in the mouth of the macerator
a pole twenty feet long, for the
purpose of clearing the way for the
reception of as great a weight as
the strength of the machine Will
bear There are two maceratlng ma
chimes at the bureau, each being an
iron, boiler-shaped cylinder, sixteen
feet long and six feet in diameter,
capable of resisting pressure OF
twenty pounds Of steam to the square
inch. These cylinders are sus-
pended horizontally, and the only
opening is a circular door in the
side about the size Of the manholes
you see in the street pavements.
Through this opening the cylinder
receives the grist of paper, and
through it the macerated pulp is
discharged about thirty-six hours
later when the process is COM
! pleted-
ONE-FOURTH WATER.
When a. cylinder is to be charged
| it is filled to one-fourth its capacity
| with water; to this is added a guam
| tity of soda, ash and lime, and then
the condemned notes, bonds and
revenue stamps are put into the pre-
| pared solution. The heavy iron lid
! is bolted over the manhole and two
! fat bars of steel are crossed over 1t
| and secured by three spring pad
! locks. These locks can be opened
only by special keys which differ in
| pattern and are kept in possession
of three members of the committee
| Of official witnesses. The macerator
cannot be opened without the pres
ence or cooperation of three COM
mitteemen, representing the secre-
tary of the treasury, the register of
the treasury and the treasurer of
| the United States.
When a cylinder is charged and
securely closed, steam is injected
and the cylinder is reyolved by
| steam power.
The manner in which the notes
| are reduced to pulp is simple. The
interior of the cylinder is provided
with strong steel plates foot wide,
! which are fastener on edge and run
| HORIZONTALLY The paper. saturated