Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1901-09-26
PLATES KEPT SEPARATE.

With the plates for the new bill G.-
ished, they are sent to the printing rcuW
The face plates Of the bill are sent TO
one printing room and the back plates TO
another. Under no combination OF CIR
cumstances Is the face of plate allowed
in the room where the backs Of the bills
are printed or engraved. The two plat $
the face and the baCk-are never per-
mitted to come together.
It is so in the engraving room where
even the plates of steel. without scratch
upon them, are carefully tracked so that
each plate can be located at any minute.
II one OF these little blank steel plates
should be missing, nobody would be al
lowed to leave that department until II
had been found. Each ongraver IS given
in the morning Just so much steel ana ne
is a prisoner until he turns that steel in
at night II he doesn't turn it in he
doesn't get out
When the plates for the back Of the
notes reach the plate printing room, they
meet the paper upon which the money
is to be printed for the first time. This
paper comes from the treasury depart
n.ont, and $50 00o sheets NJ IL are req lred
every day The sheets are cut so as 10
have four bills printed on each.
When the officials of the bureau asks
the treasury department for the p"nor'
they say that they want, for examine,
ten Thousand sheets of paper upon which
70 nrint one dollar bills. The ten tn NJ
sand sheets are sent to the bureau. "nd
thcreupon become worth four dollar -
the sheet, or forty thousand dollars in '''
They become worth that the NOM VI
they enter the bureau of engraving and
printing, and II anybody loses sheet
that person must pay the United Sit.'5
81 oven though thu lost sheet may r
have been in a printing press II 'cI-
dollar bills are to he printed upon 'ha
sheets, then they become worth S'' per
! 4 IlC11 - y
he r1lnted upon them they become WORTH
1000 rer sheet, and must be paid for II
lost. or somebody will get into trouble
right away.
/ When the paper reaches the bureau
every sheet OF 1t is counted, ThirtN-siN
women are there to count It, and they do
nothing else Three hundred and eighty
thousand sheets are used day and ON
some DAYS these thirty-six women CNtnt
that paper. sheet by sheet, four tim, :.
making their count for the day S,o-' mo
an almost incredible performance 10 u.
followed UP day after day And, moro man
that that paper is counted NJ less ina
ifty-two times from the day that ID
comes into the bureau until 1t Is stored l'
thu big vault ready to he sent back To III
treasury department
/ The paper is crisp and dry when It
reaches the bureau After the hrst ooNn'-
ing II is wet down thoroughly, and tho
back Of the note Is printed upon II. Ih"n
IL is laid away for a month to season, lht n
Wet down again, taken into another Plate
printing room and the face put on.
After the face has been put on, the
partly completed money is sent to an'th-
or room and put into a compound 10 make
ii crisp and fresh it was before the pa
per received the wettins. Then II Is PIT
under n hydraulic press and pressed down
smooth. Next tho bills still four to Tia
sheet go to a numbering room where
they are run through numbering process
OK Then the sheets arc trimmed ny a
trimming machine and the resulting
scraps NJ paper put through a maoor1tns
machine for fear somebody Will get hold
of them That ends the making of paper
money SO far as the bureau Of engraving
and printing is concerned In the treas
ury department the seal T. put on by an
ordinary printing press, and the money
issued as needed.