The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1902-05-10
UNCLE SANS MONEY.

Uncle Sans paper money has it's
birth in the bureau of engraving and
printing in Washington. Here a
corps of engravers cut its lines into
plates of steel. Five hundred men
and women are in one room. 1t is
the largest printing Office in the
world Here are struck from these
plates the notes which we give the
butcher and the baker. Each steel
plate when not in actual use is stored
away in a great burglar proof vault
to which only the highest officials
know the combination. At the side
of each printing press is little indi-
Gator like bicycle cyclometer, whicn
keeps tally Of every piece of paper
money printed. Thus is Uncle Sam
kept informed as to the exact number
of paper notes of all denominations
which leave his presses daily.
If there is a secret which Uncle
Sam jealously guards, it is the pro-
cess of manufacturing the fiber paper
upon which his money notes are
printed. He pays a Massachusetts,
firm big price for it, and this firm
does its work under the surveillance
of government agent. The paper
is manufactured of the finest rags,
cleaned, boiled and mashed into pulp.
AS it is rolled into thin sheets silk
threads are introduced into it by
SecTcT PROCESS. THESE are dis
tinguishing marks making imitation
of the paper we'll nigh impossible.
The sheets of paper, already count
ed twice and placed in uniform pack
ages at the paper mill, are stored in
a treasury vault and issued to the
bureau of engraving and printing as
wanted. Before leaving the treasury
they are counted three times more,
and the receiving official at the bu-
reau must receipt for them. Then
the bundles are unwrapped, and the
sheets are counted twenty-eight times
by corps of women. This is to in
sure that each printer gets the recor-
ded number-no more, no less. Be-
fore any employee of the division in
which this paper is kept can leave for
home each night he must exhibit to a
watchman at the door pass certify
ing that every fragment of every sheet
passing through his fingers has been
accounted for.
If one sheet of this precious paper
be lost, the entire force of men and
women having access to the room
where the displacement has occurred
are kept in, like so many school chill
dren, to find it. Each sheet is is
sued from the vault for the printing
of definite amount of money upon
it. If the lost sheet were intented to
ultimately represent So, 1000 worth of
notes, the group of employees to
whom the responsibility of its mis-
placement has been traced must make
good that amount if they cannot To-
cate it within a reasonable time.
Twenty-four times more are the
sheets containing the printed money
counted after leaving the presses.
Then they are sealed in packages of
I, 900, placed on racks in a drying
room of I3o degrees temperature, un-
packed, thoroughly examined d,
smoothed in powerful hydraulic
presses and packed in wooden cases.
These cases are hauled to the treasury
in an ironclad wagon. Six guards,
heavily armed, accompany this wag
on whenever it makes trip.
|" No attempt to steal Uncle Sam S
money while undergoing any of these
stages of manufacture has yet been
detected. AS a matter of fact, the
money would be practically useless,
for its printing is not completed until
after it makes this guarded journey to
the treasury. There the finishing
touch is added in the printing of the
colored seal upon the face of each
note. With the six sealing presses
the same precautions are taken as
with the two hundred and fifty big
money presses in the other building.
Each sheet coming from the former
has row of notes printed upon it..
The sheets are put through small ma
chimes, operated by girls, who cut out
the individual notes. Even the small
strips, falling like shavings from their
machines, must be carefully collected,
sent to the bureau of engraving and
printing and there boiled into pulp.
An employee found with even one of
these ribbons of waste paper is liable
to imprisonment for fifteen years and
fine of $1,000.
Between these different processes
the paper money has been counted
and recounted six additional times.
Finally the single notes are in stacks
of 100, with all the blue numbers
printed on their faces in sequence.
They are then wrapped in paper, Ia
beled, sealed with red wax and stored
in the great treasury vaults. Thus
| each piece of paper money now in cir