The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-19
MIST HAVE BEEN PIRATES.
From the New York Sun.

I"HE BANK Of' fhANCE is iaehoi fastidious in regard to the condi- \ tion of it's notes and never fails to
 destroy those that return to it mutilated or greatly soiled. The destruction or the
 rotes might appear to be very simple
 operation but certain practical difficulties
 are introduced by their enormous num-
 Der.
 In the year 1910 the bank destroyed
 more than 1000, 900 1000 franc notes, nearly
 2o0,oo0 100 franc notes and nearly 5000 0oo 50 franc notes. which in the aggregate weighed thousands of tons, and represent ed value of 1.6OoO0O,0o0 francs. or more
 than SOo,0oo.OOo without counting the SIP notes of 5, 20 and 25 francs that were with dIawn from circulation.
 It is essential that none of this great stream of money shall find it's way into tbc pockets of dishonest employees and that no clever rogue shall find opportunity to reconstruct notes from their fragments.
 The notes must therefore be destroyed, writes Jacques Boyer in the Scientific American, and the law requires the de- struction to be witnessed by a regent of the bank.
 At first the notes were burned in the onen air. They were placed in a cyln- der of iron rods oyer wood ire The cylinder was mounted on trunnions and was turned by means of a crank at ln- teryals during the incineration, which oc- cupied three hours This primitive meth od sufficed until 1873, when it was decided to retire the numerous fractional notes hat iS- sued during the Franco-Prussian war The magnitude of this task compelled | the technical staff of the bank to seek better method of destruction. and on the aovice of Berthelot. chemical process was adopted. After the notes had been | separated by women, under strict surveil- | lance they were introduced into the TO- | tary boiler and were macerated in soda | for three days. Each boiler was charged with 900 to HOO pounds of bank notes and | lSe pounds of caustic soda, to which about 1ooc gallons of water were added in suc- ccssive portions.
 | This process left bulky and trouble some residue. similar to paper pulp, and | it also entailed much work and an elabor- ate system of supervision and surveil- lance Hence the technical staff of the bank, with the assistance of the emi-
 nent chemist Haller and the engineer Le : quex, an expert in heating by gas, de. vised a furnace of special type for the lncineration of banknotes. The new ap- paratus was installed few months ago.
 The incineration is effected in two stages. | In the first Stage, which is an ordinary distiilation in closed vessels, the bank notes are converted into coke. while in | the second part of the operation this coke | is burned and reduced to ashes
 This method is free from the defects or the various chemical and physical pro- cesses which are usually employed for the destruction of bank notes and similar pa pers. In some of these processes ike that of Bethelot described above, .chemi- cal reagents are used. while others employ
 combustion or mechanical disintegration bv means of a rotary grinder or cutter. l All of these methods, however, present great difficulties of execution when they are applied to papers filed in bundles, Tor neither the chemical reagents nor the
 flame penetrate deeply into the interior
 or the bundles and in order to destroy I the papers completely they must be sub tected to a laborious and tedious opera
 ton of separation which requires strict and minute surveillance because of the value of the papers. The rotary cutter is eoually inefficient when applied to papers tied in bundles, which rapidly dull the blades and often clog the cylinders.
 In the new process the paper is convert
 ed into coke in an iron retort, from which
 the gases escape through a perforated
 false bottom. The retort is provided with
 manholes at the top and bottom. and the
 greater part of it is inclosed in packet
 lined with fireclay. The top of the retort
 communicates with conduit which leads
 4 to a chimney and is provided with valve
 l and a similar conduit connects the chim-
 ney with the annular space between the
 retort and it's jacket
 r-nders the influence of heat the paper
 becomes gradually transformed. The tai