Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-07-23
Nearly $50, 100000 Of Precious
Metals Are Handled.
ali is Not Gold That GlitterS There,
for 'Gold Bricks" Are
Among the CurioS.


street the past week. His inventory is
heavy and has to be made with pains
taking accuracy. Two experts, B. F.
Butler and w. F. Bowen, were sent
from Washington to make the examin-
alton. The superintendent, Mr.. Mason,
appointed man to represent him, and
employees of the Assay Office. AL
most $50, 100000 worth of precious met
ais had to be handled, weighed, count
ed, labeled and replaced in the vaults
from which they were taken. The
work began soon after 9 O'Clock every
morning and continued until in the
afternoon. Behind a large table on
which were delicately adjusted scales
capable of weighing 10000 ounces at
time, were ranged the four officials
like so many judges on the bench. AS
the sturdy employees brought the little
vans heavily loaded with boxes of gold
and silver in bars and small packages
to be weighed, one of the officials read
from book the number of the deposit
tor whose metal was placed in one pan
Of the scales, another put on the
weights as recorded in a book in the
possession of the third official, and the
other adjusted the scales and made the
test of the accuracy of the records.
The balances are shaded to a feathers
weight, that not an atom of the
precious metal may be gained or lost.
Some of the bars placed in the scales
are Of pure gold or pure silver, some
are a mixture of the two and others
contain baser metals. Scarcely any
have the fineness essential for the as
say mark, 1893. The degree of fineness
is marked upon the box containing
each deposit, which is also marked SO
as to show that it has passed the ex-
aminers.
The small packages of dust from the
crucibles and other valuable waste is
weighed and marked as carefully as the
great blocks of pure metal.
Nothing goes to waste in this build
ing, Everything is scraped, secured
and even burned to collect stray dust
containing particles of the precious
stuff Every year the chimneys are
cleaned out, and the cleanings searched
for gold and silver. Periodically the
floors come up and are burned for the
same purpose. After the assayers have
got all that they can use from such
waste material the refuse is still sold
for a good sized sum.
The separation of gold and silver
from most foreign subs tances is COM
paratively easy, but the most trouble
some metals to get rid Of, on account
of their hardness, are platinum and
iridium, the latter being too hard to
melt. If not, got rid of it gives the
manufacturers much trouble when
they come to work the gold into sheets
between their rollers.
At present no refining can be done
In the assay office, as the west wall,
next to the treasury building, is being
replaced and new chimney construct
ed. 1t will be September probably be-
fore this branch of work can be re-
sumed. Meanwhile the storage vaults
are being crowded to their full capac-
ity.
Just before the examination began
S1500000 of gold was sent to the mint
in Philadelphia, to be converted into
coin. The amount in the assay office
at that time was more than 100000, 900,
and it has run as high as $90,O0O,OO0 at
one time.
About six-sevenths of the precious
stuff in the assay Office is in the form
of gold bars or blocks, these varying
in size from a small block about two
laches long, one wide and one-half
inch thick, worth about $103, to one
somewhat larger than an ordinary
building brick, worth $4,000.
There is an excess of silver as far as
bulk is concerned, but it shows up
small in comparison of values, the
total value of the big silver bars being
1t present something less than 5000, 900,
while the gold bars on hand are worth
about s37 ,0O0,0 900.
About S5,000,000 in gold coin and
100000 in silver dollars had to pass
through the hands of the Treasury ex-
aminers and the assay office representa-
tiyes in the course of their invoice.
The New York Office draws upon the
whole country 70 its supply of gold and
silver, and it comes in many forms
crude ore fom the Western mines and
from Alaska, coin from abroad, the
odds and ends of jewelry, plate and
trinkets gathered up everywhere by
dealers. A man brought in a good
sized leather bag of miscellany the
other day to be reduced to good metal
There were dozens of spoons, no two
alike, old and battered, some of them
with the dents of children's teeth ON the
bowls, others with monogram or ini-