Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-07-25
PACKING GOLD LEAF
DELICATE WORK, REQUIRING Elk
PERT USE OF THE BREATH.
Beating, Flattening, Squaring and
Boxing the Thin Sheets Of
Precious Metal.


One may sometimes see protruding from
the wall of a business building in the down
town districts a mans hand and arm Of
heroic size. The hand GraspS a hammer
and the is tensed into masterful
blow. The whole Is gilded 1t Is the sign
OF a gold beaters establishment. Gold
beating Is one of the trades that In It's
final issues employs certain number of
girls and women. There are not many Of
them. compared with the crowds who work
| at millinery. finishing underwear. neckwear
and other similar calings. After the gold
| is beaten it has to be packed in convenient
form to place on the maket. This is where
the girls come in. They pack the gold
leaf
The curious thing about gold leaf pack
ing is that it is done almost entirely with
the breath So delicate is the operation in
volved in transferring a sheet of almost
transparent gold leaf from one place to
another that only by light puff of breath
is it possible to do it at all. 1t takes
girl about six weeks of apprenticeship. dur
ing which she gives her time. to become
expert at the busness-a bright girl, that
is to say. A slow untea enable girl might
require twice as long There are some girls
who cannot learn at all. These generally
drop out after three or four weeks as no.
body wants to bother with them. and they
themselves are eager to get into a more
congenial line
Leaves of Gold.
Gold leaf packing consists in lifting the
exquSitely thin leaves of gold from be-
| tween the leaves of parchment in which
they come from the gold beater's hands to
a board, where they are cut to a perfect
square, and then in placing them between
the leaves of the book in which they are
sold. The leaves of parchment make what
| is called a mold There are 1000 sheets of
parchment in a mold. and consequently.
when filled. there 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
1t 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 has to he
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 beaten
until they are spread out to about three
and one-half inches square. They then
transferred to the shoulder. another book
of skin leaves. and beaten. beaten beaten
under the hammer of a stalwart man.
Pounding the Gold.
When each leaf is beaten thin that
from eight to ten penryweights of gold can
be taken from the edges of the shoulder.
the leaves are again transferred. this time
to the mold. In the mold they are beaten
four hours more. All the beating is done
with wooden hammer. weighing from
seven to eighteen pounds. on "a Sheepskin
cushion. which rests on the top of a gran
lite 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 ham
mer on the granite lightens the task for the
worker. AS it is, gold beating is a hard
and mOnOtonOuS calling.
The gold that is used for gold leaf is from
% to % karat. A little alloy of copper and
silver is added to make it spread Twenty
four karat. or perfectly 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 a slender pair Of
wooden pincers; fatten 1t out a sheep
skin cushion on the table in front of them
by gently blowing on it: cut it to a perfect
square with tool called a wagon. which is
really a knife made of cane instead of steel;
lift it again with the wooden pincers lay
1t between TIE leaves of the book. and fiat
ten 1t out with the breath. The books come
in two sizes The smaller contains leaves
3%s inches square the larger leaves 33s by
37s inches. There are twenty-five leaves Of
gold In a book. and an adept will pack Sey-
enty books Il day. She gets 2n or 3 cents a
book. The girls work with marvellous rapid
ity and with a machine-ke precision of
movement that never fails to arouse the
admiration of the beholder. They are paid
by the piece. and work generally from $50
to 6 o'clock. but. doing piecework as she
does. girl is to some extent her own mis-
tresS.
Like many of the trades, gold packing has
dull season During July and August it
slows down. This year things are dullar
than usual. on account of the heavy i'm
portatons of gold leaf from Germany