Omaha daily bee., 1916-02-06
MAKING OF GOLD BRICKS
Enormous Run Of Foreign Coin is
Melted in White-Hot
Furnaces.
ACTIVITIES OF THE MELTING POT


shoveiing bright. golden British sOver.
eigns. French napoleons and japanese
ten and twenty yen pieces with a big
scoop pretty much as the man who tends
the furnace losses coal Il the daily task
Of force OF husky men IN an under
ground smelling room in Pine street, New
York. The temperature Of the place IL
high: roaring. blue-flame gas Jets under
huge earthenware melting pots give forth
a shriveiing heat; there Is a peculiar, a
sickening odor In the confined humid at
mosphere. and. occasionally. as a portion
OF clean charcoal Is thrown in. p,fffs Of
smoke swirl round the perspiring workers.
producing a weird effect. The scene re
minds one OF youthful imasininss Of the
genii of old In some OF their eKtravagant
antics, or OF mental pictures suggested
by pages OF Albertus Magnus, John Dee
and other ancient alchemists Of medieval
days. when Il was believed that gold
could be made out Of baser metals.
And these shoyelers naked to the waist
like the stokers on a transatlantic liner.
are making sold-sold bricks Of the shape
OF an ordinary house brick, Weighing
about twenty-five pounds. and worth
about 5000 a brick.
The pace where this golden transforms
tion scene IL being enacted slx-atid more
recently seven-days in the week Is the
basement OF the United States assay
office, next door to substreashry build
Ing. Verne NJ. Bowie, superintendent OF
the office. IS authority for the statement
that his staff is being driven harder now
than ever before. This is. OF course. be-
cause of the flood of gold coin pouring
into New York to pay the bills OF the
allies for munitions Of war and other ne
cessitles. The balance Of trade being
heavily in favor OF this country and gold
being, Of course. the international basis
Of pay. It follows that the precious yell
| low metal Is flowing to this country. A
day or two ago the writer heard Mr..
Bowie say TO Newspaper men on their
daily visit for en- account OF the sum re-
ceived:
~only about two millions today. Not
much; just an ordinary day"
Melting Down the Gold.
A year ago this would have been a big
days 'tekings" at the office. but now
II Is accepted as a matter OF course. In
ton days. from October IL 10 October %,
~, 600 in foreign coin and s4si.OOo in
bullion were received at the assay office
In New York. That included q shipment
OF $24 $4,000 received by J. p. Morgan &
Co. In the three months and some days
from July to october 8, Mr.. Bowie re-
ceived tA,ss1,600. making some ss7lss, 100
received within the spaise Of about four
months. As the average yearly receipts
previous to the rush cau6ed by the Euro
pean war we're abou. 500, oo0.0 900, II Is
seen that the four months receipts are
within 900 Of what formerly were
the receipts for whole twelve months.
All gold money Of foreign denomina-
ton must be weighed several tinaea,
sorted. divided. assayed. melted, assayed
again, and then shipped to the mint at
philadelphia. 1t Is plain that each addi-
tfonai million received at Pine street
means additional work in all departments
of an office which was busy when II was
handling one-half the amount Of gold x
now receives, The mon are simply being
worked at top pitch In golden shower
that Is pouring In from many parts OF
the world. Every new shipment, and there
is apparently no end to the number, piles
the stout steel strapped boxes higher Ia
the vaults and makes more ardu0us the
labor Of the sweating men who patiently
shovel fortune after fortune into the big
white-hot pots.
When q shipment Of gold arrives. Il b
fret weighed In what IL called the de-
post smelling room. This delicate opera
ton Is carefully performed and the REQ
ord as carefully Transcribed. The ship
ment is then assayed and Is divided into
''melts." each entire shipment having it's
own melt number. Carried In trays 20
the melting room II 10 piled up in con-
venlent form for shoveling into the big
earthenware pots under which biaae
flames that have heated them white hot
The shovoling igang gets 70 work and
scoops up the gold. n. az II usually the
case today. IL be In coin. and dumps Il
into the pots.