The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-13
AssAYING GOLD METALS,
The Refining CrucibIe Receives
Many Tokens of Sweet Romanccs.
From the washington Star

/
| From the Washington Star.
| Some queer things happen in our line
of business, remarked the proprietor Of a
| large assay and refining establishment in
| New York to the writer recently. "You see,
we purchase the scraps and sweepings
from factories or private individuals and
| extract the metals. Very often people who
were once wealthy come in here and part
with their silver services or gold orna-
ments in order to raise some ready cash in
| an emergency. The pawnbrokers will, as a
| rule, loan little or nothing on such articles
| because, perhaps they are antiquated or
out of style. We give the intrinsic value
| for the metal less the expense of REIN
| ing.
"Old gold is very rich not only in none
| tary value but in strong and interesting
| suggestions. Much of it comes to us in the
shape of diapidated jewelry such as
watches that are worn and broken beyond
reparI cid seal rings and rings that were
once set with cleaning gems. A broken
locket brought here the other day con-
tanned a miniature painted on ivory that
probably holds the secret of a romance.
We have also brooch made of the light
colored gold of over one hundred years
ago, and it still holds lock of somebody S
much-yalued yellow hair. 1t was bought,
hair and all, and will go into the melting
pot tomorrow with the story untold.
mot a little gold comes to us already
melted into Jumps. Some of it is Che gold
filling of teeth and dentists scrap, and
some of it is in the form of old plates,
with artificial teeth still sticking to them
Before we purchase precious metal we rub
il on a smooth stone until it leaves yell
low mark. A drop of nitric or compound
acid discolors this mark so that we can
tell the purity of the metal offered to us
to a nicely Then it is carefully weighed
nd qt n x
cents a carat.
The Old jewelry and scraps are melted
down and refined, and then rolled out into
gold foil, which is bought mostly by dem
lists and put into the teeth of customers.
"A great deal of silver is brought TO us,
but, instead of being in demand. il is just
now drug in the market. 1t usually
comes TO us in the shape of knives forks,
spoons, napkin rings and watches. When
we have more silver than we can use we
send 1t to the government mints.
1--WE assay d large amount of specimen
ore. Three weeks ago young man stray
Cd In here casually and said he had a
piece of ore that he would like to have
assayed / picked it up accidentally he
SAID a fewSdays ago in Pennsylvania,
where l was spending my vacation The
specimen was assayed, and proved to be
a wonderful one. It turned out $50 in gold
and SIS in silver. The young man nearly
went Wild. lie naSleneQ Dack 10 HeHnSyl-
vania and purchased the land where he
found the ore. If the earth is rich with
that kind of ore there. will be one man,
at least, who need not spend hard win
ter in Alaska looking for gold.
ut is only within recent years that the
sweepings from jewelry factories have
been saved Twenty years ago knew
several manufacturers who threw away
$50 to the pound of discarded trimmings
They would discharge a hand who did
not put The stuff In the ash barrel To-
day every atom of waste metal is pre-
served. So much for the change to strict
economy in metal.
Photographic wastes have also become
enormous in the last ten years Every
photographer In the United States is now
careful TO save the trimmings from his
paper which has on II a surface of nitrate
of silver. We have agents travelling con-
stantly about the country collecting the
waste clippings Of sensitized paper that
accumulates in every photograph gallery
When the waste comes to US we separate
the nitrate in the paper by chemical pro-
cesses and then prepare IL for the market
again. The re-refined nitrate is as good
as 1t was originally, and IS sold for just
as much We, Of course, make a big
profit out OF the waste, and the photog-
rapher is able to get a good supply of
material for the scraps that would other
wise be of no use to him. Not only the
scraps of silver sensitized paper, but those
Of the paper treated with solutions Of
gold are eagerly sought BY the rehner."