The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1899-02-17

one Of these ineots out TO this mil OF
rollern--
He led the way at last to q room OF the
swinging hammers and the greenhorn
stood at lest In the prceence OF Dozen
gold bestera The ceiling Was low, and1ii
the mighty blows OF those hammers mao
not been 40 strangely mufiied the noise
would have been deafenipg. A. u was
the chorus Of thuds was emphatic, put,
nevertheless, the greenhorn could near
Investigating look In search Of the CLEAN
of metal and the halo Of golden mist
which he had pictured, but he saw no'n-
| ing Of the sort.
'fThe insot IL run through those
rollers" continued Mr.. Kelley, the prse-
duced long metallic ribbon about 81
inch In width and OF the Thickness: 81
heavy writing paper. Then he e1plainfu
the beating process, which IL rs follows;
The strip OF metal IL cut into pieces
about an inch square zach piece 70
square. Zach OF these four Finch pieces 10
cut Tito four equal sections, which are,
therefore, about two inches square. zach
two-inch piece Is beaten out until IL Is
about five inches square. Each fve.inch
leaf Is then cut into four equal sections,
about leg inches .squsre. and each OF
these pieces Is beaten out until IL IL about
six inches square. The gold gets three
beatinga
The ersenhorn turned eagerly to the
nearest hammer swinger to see inst what
particular size of leaf he was engaged
upon. The man was welding his ham,
m er industriously; a great iron hammer
with a head eight or ten inches long ana
about four inches In diameter. Fancy
W neither 1t weighed anything or not IL
was of the sledgchammer variety, with
the Short strong handle entering the
middle OF the iron head.
The man was working so hard that
the greenhorn was amazed to see that the
hammer was merely pounding away on .
square and very dirty arrangement
which looked ms II IL might be q cushion.
Just then. however, the man laid down
the hammer, picked up the soiled square
thing. slipped Oh one cover then slipped
off another and ran his fingers along the
edges OF a multitude Of square dark lsavee
which made up the cushion. AZ he did
so at last there came the CLINT Of eofl the
Rreenhorn had been anticipating; heet-
ing gliinmeriDgs and shinings as the
dark leavees slipped across the mans
the middle, blew into It and there hung
down a square OF gold so exquisitely thin
that a breath sent ripples across IL like
those the wind makes in still water
Even the motion OF the air, disturbed BY
the swinging hammers, made it culver
with a CONSTITUENCIES almost too delicate
TO belong to anything material The man
held the leaf OF gold up between the
greenhorn and a printed page. The green
horn could read the words through the
gold.
Then he laughed at the pictures be had
made for himself. Beat that golds One
might AS well hope to put spider web
through a steam laundry. be looked
around. All of the hammers were rising
and falling, with only those dirty squares
| for visible object. The gold beater
showed him how the squares of thin metal
were placed between the larger leaves
made of an ox's intestines. These leaves
are first rubbed over with u rabbits foot
dipped in talcum powder. That Is to
remove any trace OF grease, for the gold
is SO delicate that IL reproouces the most
| imperceptible imperfections In any sub
stance with which II comes into contact.
| kThe gold .squares being all..inserted two
covers are slipped over the leaves so that
| they cam OF move under the hammer
These covers are of parchment or yellum
and are made from old wills, deeds and
other documents Sometimes "a cover
will stand several days of that hammer
ing Again 1t goes TO pieces in an hour
or two.
Each beater has wooden table upon
| which to work, or so it seems at first :.
But the wooden block is firmly fastened
upon a great block OF granite, perhaps
| two feet square and three feet high. No
wonder gold beating must be done In
| easements. where the blows OF iron sledg-
es falling constantly upon grants blocks
Will not do harm. While the hammering
goes on constantly, each man stops from
time TO time. He takes the covers from
his book, runs over the leaves and divides
IL so that those which We're In the middle
before are now at the outside. he does
this because the gold must not be allowed
- Ill
co. to pieces.
The men say that it is not so hard to
swing the hammers as novice would
think There Is a good deal OF give" to
the gold books and the hammer goes up
with "a rebound which Is taken advantage
of by an experienced beaten. In fact 1t
is harder for him to bring 1T down than
it is for him TO get 1t up again. The
greenhorn could not see how they man
aged to spread the gold. beating 1t in this
blind way between those hidden leaves, SO
that II worked out evenly in all direc-
tons But 1t was scarcely necessary for
the greenhorn to worry about 1t. The
men bad spent years IN learning where
and how to hammer their books, and they
had learned. But 1t is "a queer thing that
they do not always stay learned" MIR.
Keely said that sometimes a man who
has been successful gold beaten for i've
OF ten or even twenty years loses the
knAck OF ~ hll OF suuueu, anu, hitcr
spoiling book after book, has TO give the
whole thing up.
lyon must need very honest mon in
this work" said the greenhorn, cycling
the tempting sheets.
1T dossn' t make any difference" said
the boss "A man can't be dishonest II he
wants to. Every maa gets just so much
gold at q time generally about fifty five
pennyweights. He turns in SO many
hooks. Each book is marked with his
number The girls out there who trim on
the edges of the sheets and throw out any
defective ones keep every scrap OF gold
and put 1t aside, credited to the number
of the book they get it from. All Of these
scraps belonging to one man are collected
into a button like this" picking up II
round piece of rough gold. 1.-The man
has to produce from his fifty five penny
weights just so many books and so much
left over In button. Any failure to
balance is charge 10 the man."
Are some men better heaters than
others!'
Yes, and they prodt by it. For in.
stance. We require certain number OF