The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-05-24
25O.OOO.OOO POKER CHIPS,
The Annual Product of the United
states Factories.
From the - York Sun.


Enough poker chips are manufactured
in the United States every year TO make
a stack over sixty miles high if placed one
On top CT the other II laid edge to edge
they would extend along the entire length
of the Erie canal on the towpath and back
again, with a sufficient number over to
stock a hundred high-playing gambling
houses. This is only the annual product
w hat the total number Of chips in this
country is no man can tell.
For years the novelty and specially com
panles nave been turning out the chips,
and taking into consideration the last
ing qualities of the disks. one may esti-
mate conServatively that there are many
more than 2J0,000,00J of these tokens that
are used to represent the coin in games Of
chance
Where, when. or how the poker chip or
lginated is mystery. The name Of the ge-
MUS who discovered il was easier TO lose
colored bit Of metal or bone than TO part
with portion of the universal circulating
medium Is lost to history, but his wisdom
IS sun recognized and his example follow
ed. The poker chip industry IS not an ad-
Jgn n. I, or or a side line to a manufacturing
estaolshment. but a business that is rec
osnlzed as legitimate, productive and pro-
1table.
The chip is one of the simplest things to
make imaginable. Ivory chips have had
their day; so have the bone ones Men
Will not pay the price for these articles
when the substitutes do as well. The time
but now the devotee Of chance stakes his
fortune On the circular chip, and cares not
whether 1t be expensive or cheap, as long
as the banker is honest IN the redemption
Of 1t. TO make poker chips, is as easy as
the childlike pastime of making mud pies,
and the process is somewhat similar.
south America is one of the largest con-
sumers of chips The people of the repub-
lies there seem TO take to playing games of
chance as naturally as a barnacle takes
to ships bottom. Mexico uses an enOr-
nous quantity usually of an expensive
variety. The MeXicans are fond of Orna-
ment and their faro and poker chips are
bright with gold and silver, inlaid in rich
designs. The lumbermen of Canada call
Tor thousands Of the cheap kinds an0, in
tact, every civilized and semi-civilized ma
ton outside of Europe uses the American
made article.
The process of manufacture is interest
ing because of its simplicity The compo-
sition--and each firm has It's own formula
for this, which is kept secrets mixed
and dyed and then passed between stone
rollers, from which il comes in a sheet
about half an inch in thickness These
sheets are cut into squares of about eight
inches and allowed to harden AfterWa I'd
these squares are put on heated plates and
sottened to the consistency of dough The
WOrkmen cut them into narrow strips and
! lay the strips across the face of a heavy
steel die Which is now subjected to a
pressure of 6o,O00 pounds. After minute
| under this heavy weight, the die is open
ed and the chips fall out. Girls put them
on polishing wheel with wonderful rapi-
dity, and then the chips are ready for
| boxing and shipping.
You can have your choice of grades in
chips, from 81 a thousand up TO IS apiece
II all depends on your taste and your will
ingness to spend money-but the fancy
ones are not included in the returns of the
manufacturers, for any order below 100. OUC
is too small to be looked in detail and is
regarded as a nuisance.