Manchester Democrat., 1919-01-22
MANCHESTER BOY TAKES IN THE
SIGHTS Ar GOVERNMENT MINT.

H. Il. LanGr1dge, son OF mrs. Maud
Langridge, who enlisted in the navy
last summer, and who has been at
the League Island Navy yards at
Philadelphia, visited the United States
government mint recently and found
1t mighty interesting place, accord
ing to the following letter, written on
January 9th:
Philadelphia, Pa, League Island Navy
Yard, Jan. 8, 1919.
ITO Everybody at Home
II can't wait another minute to tell
you something. Mumsey, have you
any 1919 coins, headquarters, dimes,
nickels or pennies?N Did you ever see
anyone count 5000 pennies a minute?
Did you ever see 100000 silver dol
lars in q pile, handled by shovel? Did
you ever see anyone handle $1,000 as
tho it were so much brick? Did you
ever SEQ oh wait. If could
have sat down out there and written
I would have, but had to wait till l
came clear to town before could
write oh, what waste Of time!
have just come back from the United
States Government mint at Philadel-
phia. Pa, U. s. A. Hooray! ] cant
tell you anything about it because /
am so excited over it yet. First, (if
come back to earth) Thursday after
noon from until men in uniform Of
u. s. A. and U. S. N. and U. S. NJ. G.
are allowed to go through. No civil
ians are allowed at all at any time.
That is one place we have it over
them. We first saw them heating the
metal in gas furnaces to heat of
1900 degrees F. They then pour it
into moulds from there into an acid
and then into water 1t is then put
through machine which trims it. 1t
then goes to the rollers where 1t Is
rolled out to the proper thickness. 1t
is then put through machine which
cuts out the coin. 1t cuts out 80 PEN
nies a minute. The sheet from which
the coin is cut is baled and melted
over and comes back in another sheet.
A specimen of each sheet is weighed,
for if it is not exactly correct it is
sent back Pennies are 80 per cent
pure, / think. Nickels are rs per cent.
nickel and rs per cent copper. Dimes
quarters, halves and dollars are 80 per
cent silver and 10 per cent aluminium,
l think. The coin is then sent to the
stamp room where they are stamped.
| don't remember how many a min
ute They then go across an endless
belt where one woman at one side OF
each machine sorts out all the blanks.
They go by her heads up and through
this machine and out on the other
side tails up so in this way each coin
is inspected. They are supposed to
inspect rs second or 900 a minute.
They then go to the man who counts
them and he counts 5000 pennies a
minute. He has board which has
grooves in it just like Aunties' pleat-
ing board, except. Of course, between
each "rib" is room for a-penny. Each
board will hold 1000 pennies out to a
certain point Well this board runs
out foot further but from the line
out it is on hinge and when he has
the board full he pulls a lever which
allows the end of the board to drop
down and let the pennies slide off.
The way he fills the board, he dumps
bunch onto it and then shakes it
around like pop corn shaker and in
that way the pennies fall into place.
He then dumps them into hopper at
the bottom of which is a bag into
which the pennies 60. Another man
ties up the bag and puts another in
its place. That is the trip of the pen
ny. or, In fact any other coin but !
don't know the figures in the case of
other coins Sulphuric acid is the
name of the acid they use. 1t just
come to me. They aFeMsiling1p all
the old silver dollars they have on
hand and putting thsm into bullion to
ship to India. TAey bad Q big vat that
was full of silver dollars and they
handled it with shovel, and bucket.
Can you imagine anyone shovelling
silver dollars around so promiscuous-
ly? 1t is then put into an electric fur
mace that has an intense heat then
put in moulds and when it goes
through the salphuFic 1cid md water