The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-05-15
WITH THE GOLD BEATERS.
Two Hundred Thousand Dollars of
Metal Made Into Leaf,
Queer Skins That Travel from Union
Stock-Yards to London and Back
Again.
Chicago Tribune. }

dows, ana that is known as gold leaf is
manufacturer and sold in Chicago every
year. Its manufacture is interesting. 1t
is represented by n o immense plants, the
entire business Of tho city could be done
in a good-sized rarlor and without dis
turbing its tidiness.
Three principal operations constitute
the art OF gold-beating: The casting of
the gold ingots, the laninaton and the
beating. ALI of the gold used is pro-
cured directly from the mint, 900 carats
fine. 1t is alleged by the gold. heaters
one part in twenty-four, thus making
the gold leaf twenty-thr carats fine.
The alloy is twelve grains each of Upper
and silver to the ounce of fine gold. The
gold, as it comes from the mint, is melt
ed in O crucible along with little borax,
and the alloy is added.
From the cruoible the gold is poured in
to an ingot mold previously hsated andu
creased. The ingot is taken out andh
annealed in hot ashes, which both soft-s
ems it and frees it from grease. The
molds are made of cast iron, with some
what conoave internal surface to compen-
safe for the greater contraction of the
central parts of the metal in COOLING. The
| ignots weigh about two ounces and are
three-quarters of an inch broad. When
cold the ingot is put through fine steel
rollers and rolled into q ribbon Of such
thlnness that square inch of it will
weigh six and one-half grains. This they
call the Eliminating operation,
Then comes the beating. The ribbon
of gold being thus uniform, the gold
beaten cats it with shears into small
squares of an inch each. The squares
are piled over each other in lots of 30,
with piece of fine oalfskin velluin on
each. and about twenty extra vellums at
the top and bottom. Thess vollum leaves
| are aDou6 -FOUR inches square on whose
center lie the gold laminae of an inoh
| square. Tins packet is kept together by
| being thrust INFO a case of strong parch-
1nent. open at The ends and forming o
belt or band whose open sides are covered
in by second similar case drawn over
the packet at right angles to the first.
Thus the packet becomes sufficiently
compact to bear beating with a twenty
pound hammer.
The beating is done on block of
stone, the surface worked on being about
a foot square, around three sides of which
is guard OF woodwork, while the side
at which the workman stands has a
leather apron a5tahced for catching any
fragments of gold. The hammer is short
handled and managed with one hand.
The workman strikes fairly in the mid
die Of the packet, frequently turning it
over to beat both sides al1ke-a feat dex-
terously done in the interval OF strokes SO
as .0ft fp lose Nh<,, hot 30
casionally bent or rolled between the
hands to loosen the leaves and secure the
ready extension of the gold; or it is TAX
en- to pieces to examine the gold and to
shift the central leaves to the outside
that all may be equalized. Whenever the
gold layers hnvo extended to nearly the
packet size they are removed and out in
to equal squares by knife They are
thus reduced to nearly the same size as
at first, and are again made up into
packets and inclosed as before, with this
difference, that skins prepared from in
testlnes OF the OK ore now interpossd be-
tween each two leaves. Upon the peTfec-
tion of this gold beaters' skin depends
the success OF the entire operation.
1t is an odd iact that while this skin is
procured from the Union stockyards here
i'll Chicago, it must be sent to London,
England, for treatment before it is ready
for use by the gold-beaJer in America.
Notwithstanding gnld-beatlng has been
done in this country for more than half q
century, the art of preparing this neces-
sary adjunct OF the trade has never been
attained. The skin when taken from the
intestines of oxen is twenty five or thirty
inches in length Tt is immersed a short
time in a weak solution of potash, and
is cleaned by being scraped on q board
with knife. After being soaked in
water it is stretched upon frame forty
to fifty inches in length and ele ven inches
wide. When dry the membranes are
washed with solution Of one ounce of
alum to two qnarts OF water. When the
surface is dried sponge dipped in
concentrated solution of fish glue in
white wine, rendered aromatic by cloves,
nutmegs or oamphor. is passed over it.
When this coating is dry it is covered
with coat OF white of eggs. and the
strip is cut in pieces 81 inches square,
which are then smoothed out under o
press and made up icto leaves ready for
use. This process, though known on
this side of the water, has never yet been
successfully accomplished, although no
one of the manufacturers of gold leaf in
| Chicago seem able to explain just why.
One thousand pieces of this skin, So
inches square, are taken, and between
them are placed thousand squares of
gold, alternately, and the second course
Of beating proceeds. During this period
the paCKeb muSG nc OIGen IOltleQ TO render
the gold as loose as possible, otherwise
the leaves are easily chafed and broken.
They are once more spread on
cushion and subdivided into four square
pieces. Now TIE leaves of gold are made
up into third packet of convenient
thickness, and finally hammered out to
the area of fine gold leaf" whose aver
age rise ia from three to three and half
inches square. The leaves now have Of
area 1872 times greater than the plates
before the hammering began. This
means that an ounce troy has been boat
en- into about 100 square feet of gold
leaf This is by no means the ultimate
degree of attenuation, for an ounce may
be hammered to over 100 square feet; but
tho waste incident in this case from the
number of broken leaves, and the in
crease and nicely Of the labor, make this
an Improbable refinement. while the
glider finds such leaves to make lass dur
abls and satisfactory work.
The finished leaves of gold are put up
in small books made of single leaves of
soft paper rubbed over with red chalk to
prevent adhesion. Before putting tho
gold leaves into this book, however, they
are lifted one by one with q delicate