Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-02-20
To be More Thoroughly Macerated, for
Pieces Have Been Redeemed.

Pieces Have Been Redeemed.
NEW York Trbune.l
Thru an order promulgated by the
treasurer of the United States, the Old
macerating machine in the sub base
ment of the treasury at Washington,
has been put out of commission. and
hereafter all paper money, whether is
sued by the government or by Nationa!
banks, will be reduced to pulp in the
large macerator ut the bureau of en-
craving and printing.
This order was brought out by .
protest made by national bankers
claiming that the old machine failed to
do it's work perfectly. and that the
banknotes dumped into it not infre-
quently turned UP in sections for re-
demption by the banks of issue; that
the, pulp sold to various makers and
manufacturers of images, to be resod
as souvenirs, was filled with large
pieces of bills, and these We're picked
from the pulp images and offered for
redemption. Notwithstanding the fact
that the treasury macerator has been
in service for many years and mas re-
duced to pulp many trillions OF dollars
in banknotes which had ceased to be
current, this complaint was the 1lfst
one ever made against its nonperorn-
ance of duty, but the treasurer got such
positive evidence that the bankers were
correct in their assertions that he is
sued the order.
Washington souvenir dealers have
long realized that the pulp images
found a heavier demand than any 9TH
er. and those made from the pulp of
the notes last destroyed--or partly so
by the treasury macerator have al
ways brought a higher price than the
ones manufactured from the pulp of
the macerator at the bureau OF en-
craving and printing, this being due
entirely from the fact that images from
the latter contain not a speck of green
backs, the notes being reduced to AL
most whitish pulp. Naturally WISH
tors prefer an image made from real
money!" in which some of the money
would be in evidence. The treasury
macerator production or output was
therefore, worth great deal more to
the manufacturers, and always brought
a much larger price. In fact, the bur-
eau's pulp was almost a drug on the
market.
IuU HOW lllc lIldSco--OuSlS VI PlS Isl
dents, the Washington monument, I'm
Gle Sans hat. the national emblem, the
eagle, the capitol, the treasury, cats,
dogs, frogs, etc, each representing
from $4,000 to $15,000-must be made
from the bureau pulp or a first class
counterfeit, for every note destroyed
must be in this specially constructed
macerator, which works every day and
night in the year, except Sunday,
there being from $1,500.000 to $4,000
900 macerated every twenty-four hours.
This work of maceratlon and the prep
aration for it are under the personal
direction of representatives of the
treasury, the secretary, the comp
troller, and the register, and these rep
resentatives go with the heavily
guarded wagons containing the money
to the bureau, where it is taken from
the steel boxes, checked off and placed
in the macerator, the iron doors closed,
locked and sealed, and then the ma
chine begins it's work of destruction.
The large boiler or vat in which the
money is placed is filled with some KIND
of chemicals and a network of machln-
ery keeps up Il continual churning
and grinding until 2 o'clock the fol-
lowing day, when it is stopped, the
pulp taken out and another million or
two placed in, to be treated in the
same way for the next tWenty-four
hours.
BY this process of maceration it is
utterly impossible for any one to find
any evidences of money in the pulp,
even the small silk threads which run
thru all genuine notes being entirely
DESTROYED save to form a part of the
WhitiSh pulp.
With the issuing of the order by the
treasurer there are walls and Weeplngs
by a score of old soldiers who have
been manufacturing these pulp mag
es. They feel that their occupation is
gone. and that sure starvation stares
them in the face if compelled to use
the bureau pulp, but some of the deal
ers express the belief that business in
the pulp image line will move along
as usual, because, as one expressed 1t,
there will not be much difficulty in
catching on to the fact that it is not
hard work to pinch off a small portion
Of a bill and stick it on the image, hum
dreds of them being easily doctored III
this way in a short time. Should Chief
Wilkie or some of his men catch up
with manufacturers or dealers mutt
lating bills in this way to make images
salable, another chapter would be add