Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-12-22
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In great metal pans. weighed. emptied into
trucks and wheeled to the coiners.
Making Gold Pigs.

Making Gold Pigs.
All loose gold after leaving the scales is
placed in metal box with a double lock
| and wheeled on a truck to the "deposit
melting room" Here stand three furnaces.
small grinding mill and some acid tanks.
| The gold is placed in a crucible saltpeter
| and borax being added to promote the melt
Ing. The seething metal is poured into an
Iron mold and when 1t has cooled a solid
| gold cast or pig is removed, the "fux''
formed by the saltpeter and boraX and ap-
pearing like layer of dark glass, being
knocked off. All foreign substances are
Clipped off and the gold pig is dipped into
| weak solution of sulphuric acid, which
| removes further impurities. The metal of
| each consignment is thus treated separately
| and the deposit number is stamped upon
the pig, which is returned to the deposit
| room for reweighing. Before this is done,
| however, the ''fuX" and clippings above
| mentioned, are placed between the heavy
| stones of the grinding mill and converted
| into powder which Is washed in a pan by
| the same process employed in washing
| gold along our western rivers. Any stray
pieces of precious metal left after the wash
| ing are collected and returned with the pig.
| Uncle Sam goes to this extra trouble to be
| precisely honest, but he will not give the de-
| postor or seller an iota above the actual
worth of his metal. Thus after the cast
| has been reweighed, a small piece of the
gold is clipped off the corner and sent to the
| assayer, from whose analysis the '.fineness"
| of the whole mass is determined. On this
| basis the depositor is to be paid. The pig
| Is then taken to the vaults and stored until
| the meter and retiner are ready for it.
Refining Gold.
The big gold bricks-or, as we have called
| them, pigs-are first given to the refiner.
| who separates any silver which may be re-
tanned with the god Our two most pre-
cious metals possess strong affinity for
| each other and usually a considerable
amount of silver is extracted from gold bull
| lion. The refiner also removes any base
| metals which may have intruded upon this
| usual partnership Indeed, the refiner must
| turn over to the melter bars that are 99S to
$50 parts in thousand pure metal. This
! refining used always to be done by aid of
| nitric or suphuric acid, but a newer proc
ess, known as the "electrolytic," has lately
| been adopted for the minis. 1t is not only
| cheaper than the others, but gives purer
gold. That of the Philadelphia mint al
ready installed, is the largest gold electro
;ytic plant in. the world. The process very
much resembles that of common copper
plating. The gold pigs are recast into small
rectangular bars, hung in an acid solution
opposite to them hang blank metal plates
A current of electricity-passed from the
gold bars through the acid to the plates
carries with it particles of god, which de-
| post themselves upon the plate. This gold
which has left all baser metals behind is
| then scraped off.
| The old acid processes required twelve
| times as many men and allowed all p;ati-
| mum found with the gold to go to waste
| whereas the new electric process saves this
| metal, more valuable even than gold The
gold after leaving the re1ners' hands is
| stored in large steel vault pending trans
fer to the other minting departments.
Gold and Silver for Xmas Jewelry.
Much of the gold and silver in your
Christmas jewelry and other holiday val
~, Hi
After the separated metals have left the
refiners' hands they are not only passed on
to the other departments Of the mint, but
are sold to jewelers., gold beaters, watch
case makers etc, who last year purchased
directly from Uncle Sam $30,000,00O worth
Of refined gold, whereas private refiners
supplied only small share of the demand
of the liberal arts. AS some Of the jew
| elry and plate made from the refined gold
bought at the mint comes back to IT as
| is maintained.
| Your Christmas gold pieces contain nine
parts pure gold to one part copper. To
render them hard enough to stand the
wear and tear of the shops and counting
houses the copper is added as a hardener.
This "alloying" is done in the melting
room, whittier the purified gold and silver
next pass. Sixteen naphtha gas furnaces
are used in this operation the metals be-
plumhago and clay. The meters occasion
ally stir the liquid gold or silver with a
| long handled tool, not unlike churn dash
err When the metal has thoroughly melted it
IS ladled out with a little triangular cap
of black lead held by pair of long tongs:
Each crucible contains $3.50 600 worth of
LIQUID gold or $500 worth It of hau1a sid
into twonty upright molds, all creased
and lined up in shallow pan near the
furnace. AS the metal enters the grease
burns in a little fame, and the mold when
full, is handed to helper in huge mt.
tens, who opens clamp and throws out u
tank of water and then. dipped into a
weak solution of sulphuric acid, Each
ingot looks like a foot rule of gold or sli,
yer, those of god being worth $1,000 ana
those of silver $50 each. They are trim
med. filed, piled on trucks and stamped
with the melt number sample from
each melt is assayed, and If the metal Is
not 900 parts fine it is condemped and re-
melted. The approved ingot bars are now
: weighed and passed to the rolling depart
ment.
Coins in the Button Stage.
i In this great room the din is deafening.
You see the rule-like ingots coming In
on trucks. They must now be rolled into
strips Of the thickness of the finished
coins They are passed eight or ten times
through rolling mills. from which they
emerge fiat, broad and brittle. Then they
are annea1ed-made more tough and less
britt1e-and later rolled several, times
more, after which sample blanks" or
u planchets, are cut. and if these are the
proper weight the fiat ribbons of precious
metal are fed to powerful shears which
! cut ten of them at time into shorter
strips, more easily handled by the cutting
presses These latter cut out the blanks
or planchets-round. fiat buttons of
metal-on which the coins are to he
stamped. Eight such machines cut 173
silyer-dollar and half-dollar blanks each
per minute or a total of 1854 per minute.
and twice thfs number of smaller gold
and silver pieces. stamped out in double
rows. The blanks are now weighed and
sent to the selecting tables" where a
half dozen employees with exceptional
keenness of touch and vision pick from
the mass all that have rough or nicked
edges, fiattened sides or any other defect.
In each table there are two slots to which
the perfect and imperfect blanks are, re-
spectively. fed. the latter being returned
to the meters, while the former are fed
to a machine which automatically asserts
them This wonderful device 10 q row of