The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-10-25

and the melter and refner has a lot
of pure gold. out of which he makes
another brick or bar. This metal how
ever is too pure for our coins We find
1t so soft that we can scratch it with
our finger nails, and we are told that
coins made Of pure gold would not
hold their own for year, and that g.
wedding ring made of pure gold would
hardly outlast the honeymoon. 1t is
therefore necessary that the metal be
one-tenth alleged with silver and cop
per. The alloy shardens sthe coins and
makes them wear The melter4 and re-
finer knows just how much is needed.
and he puts this amount with our gold.
He takes more gold and more copper
in the same proportions, and weighs
out enough for what Is known as
melt or the amount to be melted at
one time.
IN THE MELTING ROOM
We follow the mass of gold and alloy
to the melting room, and soon find our
selves in vast factory-like place,
which is walled with small furnaces,
and in which dozens of soot-covered
men are busily working Some are
banking up Goals about clay pots, like
those we saw in the furnaces of the
deposit melting room. Others are lift
ing out what seem to be red hot Dip
pers of molten gold and pouring the
flaming liquid into iron molds, a little
more than a foot long and two inches
in thickness. Three OF these molds are
fastened together, and three golden in
gots are thus nodded at one time We
stop and watch the process. It makes
us think of that of cooking waff1es.
The molds are first laid open and
creased with lard. They are then locked
together by iron bands, stood upon end,
and the yellow liquid poured into them.
the metal hardens as it strikes the cold
iron, and a moment later the molds
are opened and the ingots are dropped
out upon table,sstos be seized with
pair of pincers and plunged into cold
water. They come out steaming hot,
but soon cool. and later on we have a
chance to handle them. We find that
each of them looks like chisel or
wedge. tits twelve inches long, half
an inch thick, and about two inches
wide. The width is graduated accord
ing to the size of the coin to be made
from the ingots. Those we see nodded
are for twenty dollar gold pieces, and
each ingct is worth, we are told, about
81, 400.
LITTLE CHANCE FOR THIEVES.
AS we watch the workmen ladling
out gold like so much water we notice
that now and then a bit of the precious
metal splashes out and falls to the
floor, and we wonder whether there is
not some way by which the employees
might steal themselves rich. We ask
the melter and refiner whether thefts
of small amounts of gold are not com
mon. He replies that such a theft would
soon be detected, and shows us how
every day this room is charged with
every bit of gold that comes into it.
and how it must give back as much as
1t gets. He points to the floor, which
is covered with an iron network Of a
honeycomb pattern, the cells of which.
an inch in diameter, are raised about
half an inch above the floor, so that
every bit of gold which falls drops
down within them.
Says he: mo one could pick up a
grain of gold out of that network with
out being seen. Some years ago we
had only bare floors, and in one of the
mints we found that we were losing
gold. The leak could not be discovered.
until at last the detectives noticed that
one of the furnace men was spending
more money than his wages warranted.
He was buying real estate and was
living at an extravagant rate He was
watched, and it was found that he was
in the habit of putting shoernakers'
wax upon the soles of his boots. When
ever he saw a bit of gold or silver upon
the floor he would earelessly stepsuDon
it, The precious metal would sink into
the wax and stick to- his feet. That