Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1912-07-08

(scientific Amerlcan)

The life OF a 81 Dill is ABOUT II
months; at the end of that time the
bill which has left the treasury in
crisp, well starched condition returns
50 filthy and worn out that it must
be put through a macerator and COM
pletely destroyed.
1t has cost the government one and
oDe-third cents to make that bill and
end to this must be added two mills
to pay the cost of destroying the bill.
So complete is the destruction that
the resulting pulp has no further use
except for the making of souvenirs,
which are sold for a trifling sum to
visitors to the treasury department
Nest of the bills in circulation are 81
bills, and naturally they receive far
harder wear than bills of higher de-
nomination.
Five dollar bills, which take next
rank in point of number in service,
cost no more for the manufacture or
destruction. Nearly As per cent of the
bills issued in the year 1911 were Of
ST. 50 and So denominations They
amounted to 246,172,OOO pieces. In
the same fiscal year 232,56OO71 pieces
of paper currency were returned for
redemption, in other words, for de-
struction.
The cost to the government of the
manufacturing and issuing these notes
was more than $3,OOO,OOO, and the
cost of destroying them about 100000
A little over a year ago Joseph E.
Ralph, director of thte bureau of en-
craving and printing, suggested to the
secretary of the treasury that a ma
chine be constructed to launder the
cid currency and put 1t in shape for
recirculation. After a year of exper-
imenting such a machine, or rather
set Of machines, was built, with ca
pacity of 10000 pieces Of paper cur
rency per day.
These machines wash the bills just
az If they were cuffs or collars, starch
them and iron them, so that they is
sue from the laundry looking as good
as new, One set is in operation in
Washington and it is proposed to in
stall others in the various sub-treas-
uries at New York, Boston, Phila-
delphia, Baltimore, Chicago, Cincin-
natl, st Louis, New Orleans and San
Francisco 1t is also considered
probable that the National banks will
have to adopt the washer and soon
all the principal financial institutions
OF the country will add a laundry
branch to their establishments.
For the present, the government
will not undertake to wash any Of the
higher denominations which contain
yellow ink, for the reason that the
potash in the suds in which the bills
are washed causes yellow ink to run.
However, It is confidently expected
that eventually this difficulty will be
overcome.
To be properly laundered a bill
must go through three separate mo-
chimes. The first step consists of in
serting the bills into the washer,
which is made up of series of rubbers
with double blankets between them.
Each bill is fed in between these
blankets, which hold them flat in the
water, and they go back and forth
nine times through the suds, which
contain a bleach.
The washing tank is divided into
two parts, one Of which holds hot suds
and the other clear rinse water The
same blankets go up over partition
into the rinse water, carrying the bills
With them. After going back and
forth through the rinse water eight
times they are blown off the blanket
by an air blast which comes through
perforated cylinders.
Through this washing process, a
bin is Obliged to travel $50 feet. In
order to find lost bills, the washer is
raised above the tank and then the
suds and rinse water are searched
for the bills.