Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1899-11-02

the fiber paper. and it is a serious one
linasmuch as false notes produced or
the Mccartney plan actually acquire g
superior verisimilitude through the
help OF the fiber. However, the fibers
can be initiated quite perfectly by
making a few irregular scratches on a
steel plate and printing from the lat
ter with colored inks upon the other
wise complete counterfeit bill. 1t used
TO be supposed that the brown ink with
which the backs of the national bank
notes are printed could not be washed
out, but this notion was rudely dis
PEELED not long ago by the appearance
at the treasury of nearly new S.
bank note with the back perfectly
blank Some chemist with a taste for
practical joking had done it.
The patent on the fiber paper ran
out in 1889, and then the treasury took
it up again. All of it is made at a
factory in Dalton, Mass, where it is
turned out under the eyes of govern
ment agents. Every sheet is counted
| by machine as it is produced, and the
utmost imaginable care is taken that
not scrap Of the paper shall get
away; it is considered as precious as if
it were so much money. Defective
sheets are destroyed, and every perfect
one sent to Washington is accounted
for by number. The fibers are simply
colOred silk threads bought from
New York importing firm, cut into
quarter-inch lengths and fed into the
paper making apparatus.
The production of a new set of notes
and certificates running through all
the denominations, is not so difficult
as one might imagine. At the bureau
of engraving and printing, where the
paper money is printed, the chief artist
and his assistant designers use their
odd moments of leisure in making
drawings Of parts of bills-bits of bor-
der, vignettes, etc. These are repro
duced on steel by the engravers, and
little proofs representing them are
pasted into a large scrapbook.
If a design for a note is wanted in a
hurry, the head man looks over the
scrapbOOk to see what he has in stock.
He draws on sheet of paper a par
allelogram precisely the size and shape
of the bill that is to be, and inside of
this he pastes a section or two Of Dor
der, an ornamental bit for each corner.
a portrait-he has plenty of portraits
Of historical personages ready en-
graved-some large numbers where
they are wanted, and finally the words
composing the STORY of the note.
The "story" of a piece Of paper
money is the legend it bears. For ex-
ample a national banknOte tells what
institution issued it, and mentions that
it is legal tender, silver certificate de-
claring that 81 payable to bearer have
been deposited in the treasury. Words
to make UP such money stories are
kept in stock always, ready engraved,
like other pieces of designs. Thus the
chief artist is able within few min
utes, if necessary, to make a complete
pattern Of a brand new bill, no portion
of which has ever been used before.
The back of it is chiefly geometric
lathe work, and plenty of stuff of tha
sort is on hand.
with his design he hands it over to the
chief of the bureau of engraving, who
sends it to the secretary Of the treas
ury The latter is the only authority
qualified to decide whether or not it
shall be accepted and used. However,
not being necessarily an expert in such
matters himself, he is likely to ask
~ Of ho +ro nd Of nt
officials The first question considered
is whether the bill can be easily coun
terfeited; next, durableness is thought
of, and the various technical points
follow If the design is approved it is
sent back to the bureau of engraving.
and the engravers set to work to repro
duce it on a steel plate.
To engrave it thus would require a
year or more if the work had to be
tackled newly, but, as has been said,
all the parts of it have already been cut
in steel piece-meal. A parallelOgram
exactly the size of the note is drawn
upon a plate of soft steel Then a
roller of soft steel is passed, under
great pressure, over piece Of the orig.
inal engraved pattern. The roller is
thereupon hardened by fire and applied
to that portion of the parallelogram
where the bit of design is wanted. Re-
peating this method with the other
parts-vignette, STORY etc.,-the
complete pattern, as shown in the ap-
proved drawing, is soon transferred to
the plate.
Next, the plate is fire hardened and
it's complete design is taken upon
soft roller The roller, in its turn, is
hardened, and by applying it under
pressure to one blank plate of soft steel
after another, as many duplicates Oh
the original plate as may be desired
are produced In this way an enor-
nous amount of labor is saved; for, of
course, a large number of plates have
to be used simultaneously for printing
any given piece of money in order to
turn out the pieces fast enough.
AS the notes are printed, four of
them on each side of fiber paper, a
piece of brown paper is put between
each two sheets. Necessarily, there
must be two plates for each note-one
for the front and another for the back
and two impressions are thus re-
ouired. The printed sheets are placed
between oiled pasteboards and sub
jected to pressure of $500 pounds to
the square inch to make them smooth.
Finally they are numbered by ma
chine and sent over to the treasury,
where the notes are cut apart and
stamped with the treasury seal. Then
thew are ready to go into circulation