The Savannah morning news., 1903-08-09
PACKING GOLD LEAF.
,,.,te Work, Requiring Expert
Usc of the Breath.

Use of the breath.
From the New York Tribune.
,., WAY sometimes see protruding
tho wall of a business building in
aowntovn districts a mans hand
s,d arm of heroic size. The hand
.rs hammer and the arm is tensed
sl" masterful blow. The whole Is
lh% II is the sign of a gold beat
ssrs establishment. Cold neatlng Is
a. NJ the trades that in it's final is
on on employs certain number of girls
sue ,,.onan There are not many of
I'm a.H compared with the crowds who
,rl. at millinery, finishing underwear,
"i,sar and other similar callings
1Ner the gold is beaten it has to be
aacITed in convenient form to place
Ir the market. This is where the girls
VI '"n,e in. They pack the gold leaf.
Tbs curious thing about gold leaf
liking is that it is done almost en-
!rsv with the breath. So delicate is
mo oreration involved in transferring
sweet of almost transparent gold leaf
So, one place to another that only by
light puff of breath is 1t possible to
In if at all. 1t takes a girl about six
weeks of apprenticeship, during which
sbe gives her time, to become expert
At the business-a bright girl, that is
m say. A slow, unteachable girl might
rcouire twice as long. There are some
Girls who cannot learn at all. These
Generally drop out after three or four
weeks as nobody wants to bother with
them, and they themselves are eager to
get into more congenial line.
Leaves of Gold.
Gold leaf packing consists in lift
ing the exquisitely thin leaves of gold
from between the leaves of parchment
in which they come from the gold
beaters hands to a board, where they
are cut to a perfect square, and then
in placing them between the leaves of
tn book in which they are sold.
The leaves of parchment make what
is called mold. There are 1000 sheets
Of parchment in a mold, and conse-
quently when filled, there are 1000
sheets of gold leaf in it. Molds come
from England; at least, the skin out
of which they are made does. There
is a secret about the sizing of the
material which is understood only in
England. Each leaf in the mold is
FIVE inches square.
When the gold leaf gets into the mold
it is pretty far along on its journey
to the consumer. Behind the mold are
many processes.
The gold. to begin with, comes in
the form of bars or nuggets, and mas
to be weighed and melted and made
into inCh-wide ribbons before anything
can be done with it. The ribbon is
then cut into inch squares and placed
in the clutch, which is a book of leaves
Of parchment and paper. Between the
leaves of the clutch the inch squares
Of stiff yellow ribbon are beaten until
they are spread out to about three
and one-half inches square. They are
then transferred to the shoulder, an
other book of skin leaves, and beaten,
beaten beaten under the hammer of a
stalWart man.
Pounding the Gold.
When each leaf is beaten so thin that
from eight to ten pennyweights of gold
can be taken from the edges of the
shoulder, the leaves are again transfer
red, this time to the mold. In the mold
they are beaten four hours more. All
the beating is done with a wooden ham
mer, weighing from seven to eighteen
pounds, on a sheepskin cushion, which
rests on the top of a granite post. One
end of this granite post passes through
the flooring and rests on the bare
ground, the idea being that the re-
bound which comes from striking the
hammer on the granite lightens the
task for the worker. AS it is, gold
beating is hard and nGonotonous call
ing.
The gold that is used for gold leaf
is from % to % karat. A little alloy
OF copper and silver is added to make
II spread. TWenty-four karat, or per-
fectly pure gold, would be impossible
to handle.
Well. after the gold leaf has been
beaten four hours in the mold it is
handed over to the girls. They lift the
unshaped gold leaf from the mold, |
using slender pair of wooden pincers;
f1atten it out on a sheepskfn cushion |
on the table in front of them by gently |
blowing on it; cut it to perfect square |
with tool called a wagon, which is
really a knife made of cane instead of |
steel; lift it again with the wooden
plncers, lay it between the leaves of |
the book. and fatten it out with the
breath. The books come in two sizes.
The smaller contains leaves 33s inches |
square, the larger leaves 33s by 3% !
inches. There are twenty-five leaves
OF gold in book, and an adept will
pack seventy books a day. She gets
21a or cents a book. The girls work
with marvellous rapidity and with u
machine-like precision of movement
that never fails to arouse the admira-
ton of the beholder. They are paid
by the piece and work generally from
$50 to o'clock, but, doing piecework |
as she does, a girl is to some extent
her own mistress.
Like many of the trades, gold packing
mas a dull season. During July and
August it slows down. This year
Things ARE dul1er than usual, on ac-
count of the heavy importations of gold
leaf from Germany