Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1902-07-12
aatisfellaaeul1s 8eadil1g.
THE NEW PHILADELPHIA MINT.
Said to be the Finest Coin Factory
In the World.

mint has received Its finishing touch
and you may now inspect here, in the
Quaker City, the best equipped an6
most artistically modelled coin factory
in the world.
Whereas in the old Philadelphia mini
you were permitted only to peer
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, we'll lighted
Laboratories.
Leaving the deposit room, where il
is received, the bullion is taken first
to the new melting room. Here are II
new melting furnaces, whose tempara-
ture 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-
shaped crucibles made of plumbago
These, as needed, are placed In the fur
naces, and in them are thrown the gold
and 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 alloyed with
copper until they are 900 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 a certain color
which they can detect only after lone
experience, it is ready to be nodded into
ingots. But before this is done few
drops of the molten metal are removed
by the assayer.
A man whose gloved hands clutch q
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 a series OF
clamp molds. Each set of these Is tax
en- by a second pair of gloved hands and
plunged into cold water.
The hardened ingots are next dipped
into muriatic acid, which eats away al
particles of foreign matter. Finally
they are placed in another bath of wa
ter.
Whether gold or silver, they are al
nodded to measure a foot in length, bu,
vary up to one and one half inches ir
width and thickness, according to the
coin to be struck from them.
Each finished ingot comes from thf
mold with blunt end or top. this being
caused by the end Of the mold in which
the LIQUID metal is poured. A row OF
topping machines bites off this irregu-
larity, and from these the bars are
passed to men at benches who file of
the rough edges.
The filings are caught in oilclotf
lined boxes and carefully saved. Next
the properly shaped ingots are sent te
a long table, where they are placed
side by side, in a row and man WITH
a brand and hammer stamps upon each
a number, designating it's melt.
The bars now pass to the assayer
who compares the few drops of meta
taken from the furnace with the cores
pondingly numbered lot of the finished
product. If the latter fails to reach
900 fine it must be remelted.
Ingots which run the gauntlet of the
assayer pass next into the rolling de-
partment, which, like the melting room
has been equipped with brand new ma
chinery. Between pairs Of massive
rollers the ingots are passed 10 times
They are then of twice the required
thickness.
Next they are sent to the annealine
or tempering furnace, where they are
heated cherry red and plunged into
water. Then they are put through an
other series of rollers Is times before
being reduced to the proper thickness
which, of course depends upon the de-
nomination of the finished coin to be
made from them. Ingots which before
the rolling process resembled sticks OF
solder, in point of size, leave the last
rolling press in the form of strips vary
ing in dimension up to six feet ir
length, four inches in width and about
a sixteenth Of an inch in thickness.
In the old mint these strips were
made by a sort of combined rolling and
pulling process, which has now beer
abandoned.
The flat strips of gold or silver are
next fed 20 a series of cutting machines
which move very rapidly, with a ver'
tical motion. A man on one side feeds
the carriage and one on the other takes
out the strips pierced with round holes
from which the metal has been cut.
Into a tray beneath each cutter fal
the disks known as blanks or planchets
upon which the final designs are to bt
stamped. Blanks above the size of q
quarter are cut in a single row from
each strip: others in rows of two. The
refuse strips are turned to the melters
The blanks or planchets next pass tC
the cleaning department and thence tt
a series of automatic weighing ma
chimes. Each of these is compose
primarily of ten upright brass tubes be.
Meath which passes a long sliding bar
Each move of the bar pushes off thu
ten bottom planchets into small bas
ket on one end of small scale beam
The blank coins are weighted instantly
and are passed through series o.
troughs leading to three boxes. Int
one box falls the light, into the SECOND
the heavy and into the other the stand
ard planchets.