Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1905-06-20
MAKING ENoLisE BANK NOTES.
Design 10 simple-Protsetion Against
Forgery In Printing and Paper.

MAkiNG ENGLiSr bANN NOtG0'
Design 10 simple-Protsetion Against
Forgery In Printing and Paper.
The Bank of England note IL the
most easily forged Of all, for It Is the
simplest, consisting as It does Of black
printing on a white paper. The great
safeguard lies in the quality Of the
paper and the quality OF the printing
and the watermark on the paper. says
Answers.
To make the actual paper Is beyond
the skill Of the cleverest forger. It
is made at small town near London.
but so well has the secret been guard
ed the most sl1illful not. printers In
the trade do not understand that,
though they know most Of the other
secrets.
Note printing is one Of the highly
skilled trades which still Is a virtual
monopoly Of the city of London. II
has always been SO, and the great
banks of the world come to the en-
gravers and printers Of London to
have their notes or their plates made.
They turn out the most beautiful
printing in Europe. Some Of 1t is Of
the most complicated description. and
In this fact lies its great safety.
The steel plate itself Is the work Of
many hands and many brains. When
the main design has been decided upon
the parts of the picture have to be
given over to several engravers, each
Of whom is skilled in one branch Of
his art and could not exchange his
part with any Of the others. One is
an architectural ensrayer. and with a
fine needle he labirs for weeks In tho
effort to convey to the metal a perfect
picture of building. Another, with
skill Of quite q different sort, makes
portraits. a third drs;ws scenery. while
a fourth fashions the letters. Still 9TH
ers contrive corner pieces; and then
there Is the machine engraver, which
is more wonderful still. for the ma
chine does work so fine that no human
hand can initiate It.
The complicated work Of tracery
which you see on the back and front
Of Scotch and foreign notes is 30 min
ute that the camera cannot effectively
copy It. To reproduce with photo
graphy on zinc It is necessary to en-
ploy acid. and the acid would eat away
these fine lines. The work Is done by
a machine which Is made on the prin-
ciple OF the pantograph. II seems to
consist Of multitude Of wheels and
eccentrics, and apparatus for guiding
and checking the needle and sending
it in new directions Mt all sorts Of un-
expected angles and curves.
After the design has been worked
out on the machine In accordance with
the secret code, which Ii kept by the
proprietor locked In the safe, the ma
chine does the work itself, II the oper-
ator will go on turning the driving
crank slowly and steadily. The plan
Is taken out with numbers, which
represent the wheels and the code OF
figures, showing the work which Is to
be done by each wheel. and how It
comes into play. But the operator can
not know that secr,t- The machine
simply goes ON in its own way. and
the least slackeninE Of any Of the
parts will put 1t all out A workman
cannot repair the error, for he does
not know the code, and the whole work
will be spoiled until the master comes
along and resets the wheels and other
parts in their proper order
Only a small part of the design is
worked out by this delicate machine
Just enough to give complete rep"
resentation Of the pattern. Then that
portion is stamped on soft steel, which
is hardened by another secret process
and made into sort Of die, which Is
used to impress other plates Of steel,
till the full border Ia thus completed,
or a band made to go across the whole
face or back of the note.
In the best Of the colored notes three
of four tints are used. and generally
you find that one y them is blue. II
defies the camera. The different col
ors are put on with different plates
and each means a separate printing.
The result Is that II you hold one OF
the notes UP to the light you viii find
that the lines Of the different colors
run through and through one another,
making It impossible to take q perfect
CODY, even II the camera could catch
them all, which It cannot.
No forger can get the tracery done
by hand, because no engraver could DO
Il, and he cannot get the machine. II
he had the machine 1t would take
years to work out tho secret combina-
ton Of figures which make any parti-
cular design. There are only three or
four of these machines in the world.
Then for his design, in the shape OF
portraits and architecture and scenery
and lettering. he would want q COM
bination Of four or more engravers OF
high ability and bad character, which
would be as hard to come by as the
machine. II cannot be done.
But the English note is protected by
none Of these things. Its lettering ana
general design can be copied quite cas-
lily by the camera, and a good plate
reproduced on zinc for printing. II
can be photographed on stone, and
the printing is ready at once II the
forger can get paper Of the right sort.
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