The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-10-21
AVALANCHE OF GOLD
SWAMPS ASSAYERS
Yellow Metal Shovelled Up as
If 1t Were Pig Iron
in a Foundry.
MOST OF 1T IN BULLION

The nood Of gold that 10 pouring into
New York to pay the war bills OF the
Allies has created a task in h United
States Assay Office such as that insti-
tuition has never faced before. With
zach new shipment the piles Of boxes
containing the coin of Europe and the
heaps Of yellow bars In the vaults rise
higher, and toll as they will the sweat
ing men in the melting room cannot
handle the stun fast enough.
They work longer hours each day thar
they ever did before. but with each
shovelful Of the slittering coins tossed
into the melting pot the golden hill in.
stead of decreasing seems to grow. For
as soon as one great shipment 10 partly
melted and on its way to the mint at
philadelphia to be turned into United
states coin. another consignment Of
millions Is poured on top of what ID left.
The vaults can scarcely hold II all, and
for two Sundays the entire force from
Supt. Bowie down has been hard at
work trying to keep the office from being
overwhelmed by the yellow tide.
An idea OF the tremendous increase in
shs WIN Va NiS OHhtSC tall IN NY
a comparison Of figures. The average
amount Of gold that goes through the
Assay Onice in ordinary times Is $780,
000. 900 a year. IN the last ten days
s37.292, 900 in foreign coin and 34sl..
800 In bullion has been received there.
That includes the shipment Of 324,3S3,-
900 received Tuesday for J. p. Morgan
4 Co. In the three months n q few
days from July 1 TO October 8 Supt.
nrA..,. s--t h.. aNRAA
HS2.l3s.10O received and melted At the
Assay Office in less than four months.
only about SIS 900, 900 less than would
be received ordinarily in a year.
The gold comes chiefly in bullion,
English sovere!gns. French napoleons
and Japanese Yen. OF the gold received
from July I to October 8, Sl7,1al,300
was in bullion. s11 ,623.o 900 in sovereiEns,
e4,63S.soo in yen n 81. 1ss. 700 in napo.
Icons. ]. r. Morgan & Co. and the
Guaranty Trust Company have been
the two big depositors.
The work that Is required 10 turn this
into bars for coinage can be Judged by
the fact that II will take q week to
handle the latest Morgan consignment,
and In the meantime the other deposits,
Of which there are from $500. 900 to ST.
100000 n day outside Of the big foreign
shipments. must be taken care Of. This
10 because n depositor gets a check for
only 90 per cent OF the indicated weigh
value of his gold when II Is turned w
10 the Assay Office. He must wait until
h gold has been melted. assayed and
valued down to the last 100000 Of q
cent before he a get a check for the
remainder.
Despite the great handicap under which
eupt. Bowie has been laboring. he man.
ages to get this final check out usually
within four days Of the receipt Of the
gold.
To do this tho great melting and test
ing rooms of the Assay Once are turned
mo chambers of flame and dirt and
whirlng clouds OF smoke for long hours
every day. and often into the night.
where men stripped to the waist cease
lessly shovel heaps Of shining. jipghng
coins into the furnaces. They handle
quantities of gold that would corrupt
rhe soul of many a man, with as much
n~onchalance. as workers in q pig iron
foundry.
No ancient alchemist's room ever pre-
scented a stranger sight han these places
far below the busy rush of Wall Street
where the molten metal Is tested a N
cast into bars that are forwarded 20 the
mint. The roaring blue gas flames give
out a shrivelling heat of $500 degrees
Fahrenheit. Strange doors arise from
the bubbling metal that sicken those not
used to them. and occasionally a shovel
full OF cleansing charcoal is tossed in. and
a puff Of curling black smoke shoots up
and eddi n about the bodies of the
workers.
From the middle of the seething pots
where the bullion is melted, samples are
taken and boiled in nitric acid in d
shaped retorts 10 separate the silver and
alloy. and then the entire mass is refined
until it is 9?a 5-10 pure gold. The coin
itself is so near our standard that II
is not refined. hut after being melted into
bars is shipped direct TO the mint