The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-02-18

been turned into bricks the banks pay its
 value as per the assay less their com mission
 | It is interesting to visit the melting
 establishments of these Alaska banks. I spent sometime today in that of the Merchants and Miners bank here at Nome. The gold smelting was done in
 little room adjoining the bank, and the furnace looked much like kitchen
 stove. Arounds the walls were shelves containing melting pots of one kind or another, and under them were bins of soda and other materials such as are
 mixed in with the gold in the melting. When the lid of the stove was lifted observed that it was lined with fire clay, and I was shown that it had
 blowpipc connected with it and that it's heat was even as great as the furnace through which Shadrach, Meshac and
 ADednego, the three Israelites, walked and came out as free from harm as though clad in asbestos
 The assayer was young man from
 Sidney, o. He came out here as a grad
 uate of the Ohio State university, and
 since then has melted something like $3S, ,O00,0OO worth of gold dust and molded it into bullion. He is now melting about
 $2,0Oo00O per annum. He had a big job on hand at the time of my visit, and with his permission I watched the process. He first took two clay pots, each holding
 about a half a gallon, and poured into them some soda and other chemicals. He
 then took, two pokes each holding quart of gold dust and nuggets, and poured them into the pots. He handled the gold dust as though it was so much cornmeal, and indeed it looked not unlike cornmeal fresh ground. He next took the pots up with pinchers and laid them on the blazing bed of the furnace. He then covered the whole and sent in a draft which raised the temperature to some thing like 2500 degrees Fahrenheit. It takes only 1900 degrees to melt gold, and the heat soon transformed the dust and flux to a liquid mass which boiled and bubbled. When he opened the furnace the contents of the pots were of a golden red color. and the pots themselves were red hot He lifted them out with the pincers, and poured the liquod from each into steel mold the shape of 8 brick. As the gold struck the cold metal it cooled, and a little later the impurities in it rose to the. top in the form of slag which crumbled off, leaving a brick Of pure gold. This brick was worth thou sands of dollars. The assayer dumped it into wooden tub, like a washtub filled with water. This cooled the brick and a few moments later the assayer took it out and scrubbed it off with a nail brush such as you can buy any day in the To- cent store. He then wiped it with 15- cent towel, and showed it to me as bright and shining as a new wedding ring.
 After melting, the gold brick is weighed and the difference between the weight of the dust and the weight of the brick rep resents the impurities. The average loss in the case of clean, bright dust is about ? per cent The next process is assaying the brick. Chips are cut from the cor ners with chisels, or borings taken from the top and bottom in different parts of the brick. These are melted and re- fined and their content of pure gold is known. Their weight is then compared with that of the brick. The result shows the fineness of the metal in the brick and it's value.
 During my stay here I lave seen much of Jafet Lindeburg. who, with John