The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1902-03-29
UNCLE SAINTS MONEY.
THE SAFEGUARDS THAT HEDGE
ABOUT ITS MANUFACTURE.

Uncle Sans paper money has its
birth in the bureau of engraving and
printing in Washington. Here corps
Of engravers cut it's lines into plates
of steel. Five hundred men and wom-
en- 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 great
burglar proof vault to which only the
highest officials know the combination.
At the side of each printing press is a
little indicator like bicycle cyclone
ter, which 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 denomi-
nations which leave his presses daily.
If there is any secret which Uncle
Sam jealousy guards, it is the process
of manufacturing the fiber paper upon
which his money notes are printed. |
He pays a Massachusetts firm a big |
price for it, and this firm does its work |
under the surveillance of a govern |
ment agent. The paper is manufac-
tured Of the finest rags, cleaned, boiled
and mashed into pulp. AS it is rolled
into thin sheets silk threads are intro |
duced into it by secret process.
These are the distinguishing marks
making imitation of the paper well
nigh impossible.
The sheets of paper, already counted
twice and placed in uniform packages
at the paper mill, are stored in treas
ury vault and issued to the bureau of
engraving and printing as wanted. Be-
fore leaving the treasury they are
counted three times more, and the re-
ceiving official at the bureau must re-
ceipt for them. Then the bundles are
unwrapped, and the sheets are counted
twenty-eight times by corps of wo-
men. This is to insure that each print
err gets the recorded number-no more,
no less. Before any employee of the
division in which this paper is kept can
leave for home each night he must ex-
hibit to a Waterman at the door pass
certifying 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 wo-
men having access to the room where
the displacement has occurred are
kept in, like so many school children,
to find it. Each sheet is issued from
the vault for the printing of a definite
amount of money upon it. If the lost
sheet were intended to ultimately rep
resent $4,000 worth of notes, the group
of employees to whom the responsible
ity of it's displacement has been traced
must make good that amount If they
cannot locate 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 1000,
placed on racks in a drying room of
100 degrees temperature, unpacked,
thoroughly examined, smOOthed in
powerful hydraulic presses and packed
in wooden cases. These cases are haul
ed to the treasury in an ironclad wag'
on. Six guards, heavily armed, accom-
pany this wagon whenever it makes q
| trip.
No attempt to steal Uncle Sans mon
ey 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 anC
fifty big money presses inS the othel
building. Each sheet coming from the
former has a row of notes printed upoI
it. The sheets are put through small
machines, operated by girls, who Gu
out the individual notes. Even thu
small strips, falling like shavings from
their machines, must be carefully col
lected, sent to the bureau Of engraving
and printing and there boiled into pulp
An employee found with even one O
these ribbons Of waste paper is liabl
to Imprisonment for fifteen years ant
a fine Of $4,000.
Between these different processes tn
paper money has been counted and re
counted six additional times. Fiuall,
the single notes are placed in stacks o
100, with all of the blue numbers print
ed on their faces in sequence. The
are then wrapped in paper. labeled
sealed with red wax and stored in tn
great treasury vaults. Thus each piec
, of paper money now in circulation ha
, been officially counted sixty-thre
8 times.
! In our minis the system of account
! ing for the blank metal out of whic
> the finished coins are stamped, of keel
, ing tally on the coming machines worl
q of counting the finished product
. packing it. of sealing it in cloth bag
q of transporting it under guard,
: counting it many times again and fina
ly of storing it away is practically tt