Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1902-07-17
NEW PHILADELPHIA MINT.

Uncle Sam will hereafter coin his
Eastern money by a brand new process
and with brand new machinery. His
great 81, 400 900 mint has received its
finishing touch, and you may now in
spect here, in the Quaker City, the
best-equipped and most artistically
modelled coin factory in the world.
Whereas in the old Philadelphia
mint you we're permitted only to peepl
through small windows at the industry
of dark rooms, you may in the new
structure stroll comfortably upon high,
overhanging galleries, and there watch
every act of the nations moneymakers
working in their ample, well-lighted
laboratories.
1 Leaving the depositroom, where it is
received, the bullion is taken first to
the new nieltingroom. Here are l6 new
melting furnaces, whose temperature
can be raised to 1000 degrees by oil |
! fuel, which is now exclusively used. In |
| the melting furnaces of the old mint |
| anthracite coal was employed.
| Piled about the furnaces are keg-
1 shaped crucibles made of plumbage.
| These, as needed, are llaced in the
furnaces, and in them are thrown the
gold ard silver bricks. These bricks
are brought from all parts of the world
and vary greatly in size. Before being
made into money they must be alleged
with copper until they are 800 fine.
The meters stand before the furnaces
wearing huge mittens made of heavy
buckskin or crash, padded with scraps
of ingram Brussels carpet. When the
precious metal reaches certain color,
which they can detect only after long
experience, it is ready to be nodded
into ingots. But before this is done a
| e., &c tba s,nalfnp NATAL mr. va
, moved by the assayer.
,, A man whose gloved hands clutch
, pair of long tongs holding a three
! spouted gray bowl in their jaws, dips
|, from each crucible the glowing, liquid
metal and pours it into series o.
clamp molds Each set of these is taken
by a second pair of gloved hands and
, plunged into cold water.
: The hardened ingots are next Dipped
,, INTO muriatic acid, which eats away
|, all particles of foreign matter. Finally
they are placed in another bath Of
!, water.
4 Whether gold or silver, they aresall
q nodded to measure foot in length.
+ but vary up to one and one-h half inches
q in width and thickness, according to
g the coin to be be struck from them.
i. Each finished ingot comes from the
I
4 caused by the END of the mold in which
Z the liquid metal is poured. A row of
q topping machines bites off this irregu-
n larity, and from these the bars are
! passed to men at benches who file off
It he rough edges
"a The filings are caught in oilcloth
a lined boxes and carefully saved. Next
a the properly shaped ingots are sent tc
d long table, where %hey are placed,
- side by side, in a row and man with
" brand and hammer stamps upon each
a number, designating its melt.
The bars now pass to the assayer.
who compares the few drops of meta
taken from the furnace with the cor
respondingly numbered lot of thC
at finished product. If the latter fails tt
reach 800 fine it must be remelted.
s, Ingots which run the gauntlet of thu
b. assayer PASS next into the rolling de
y. partment, which, like the melting
Id room, has been equipped with brant
ce new machinery. Between pairs o
is massive rollers the ingots are passed l
he times. They are then of twice the re
n, quired thickness.
q, Next they are sent to the annealin
70 or tempering furnace, where they ar
y. heated cherry red and plunged int
u water. Then they are put throug
another series of rollers 10 times befor
I'M being reduced to the proper thickness
n, which, of course, depends upon tn
Ia, denomination of the finished coin to b
ad made from them. Ingots which befor
nd the milling process resembled stick
he of solder, in point of size, leave tn
IDS last rolling press in the form of STRIP
or. varying in dimension up to six feet
rs. length, four inches in width and abot
81, sixteenth of an inch in thickness.
OF In the old mint these strips wei
made by sort of combined rolling an
ma pulling process, which has now bee
ION abandoned.
vas The fat strips of gold or silver a
Oh next fed to series of cutting machine
IN which move very rapidly, with vert
ing cal motion. a man on one side feet
the the carriage and one on the other taxi
rm OUT the strips pierced with rour
In holes from which the metal has bee
eat cut.
pill Into a tray beneath each cutter ia
his the disks known as blanks or planchet
Ind upon which the final designs are to
ads stamped. Blanks above the size of
We quarter are cut in single row fro
NC each strip; others in rows of two. ~
lily refuse strips are returned to &
g TO meters.
O." The blanks or planchets next pass
ZEN, the cleaning department and thence
tent series of automatic weighing m
chimes. Each of these is compos
primarily of 10 upright brass tub
beneath which passes a long sliding bt
Each move of the bar pushes off I
~ 10 bottom planchets into small bash
on one end of small scale beam. I
II blank coins are weighed instantly a
,,bt are passed through series of troug
isst leading to three boxes. Into one b
an;y falls the light, into the second
tai heavy and into the other the standa
planchets.
,,as The light planchets are condemn
ortb and melted over. All planchets wni
,h;Ia are too heavy are taken into an
~ iusting room. Here 140 women, cd
90, g. with a small set of scales and files,
cmt employed in cutting the edges of
heavy planchets until all come down
. the standard.
The next step is to run all planch
of proper weight through the mill
machines which put on the fiat 1
or raised edge which protects el
" coins face from abrasion. The mil
blanks are then heated to cherry
" by passage through an automatic he
a ing furnace, from which they drop i
- a copper colander, and are then lif
. by a crane into bath of muratic az
are revolved in this bath and
c. finally dropped into a revolving scr
nay filled with Eastwood saw6ust, such
ie an jewellers use. which thoroughly clear
nts and dries them ready for coinage.
i've Against the long wall of the coini
room thpra are d treat heavy nras