MEN WHO MAKE MILLIONS

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 587, 16 August 1909, Page 5

MEN WHO MAKE MILLIONS

£90 MADE IN A MINUTE. 25,000' SOVEREIGNS—A FAIR DAY'S WORK. Gold, goldV everywhere gold. ;lt seemed like the story of King Midas over again (says the Sydney "Daily Telegraph"). There was gold in the molten state, gold-m bars, and gold in "fillets," and then these prosaic men, instead'of., holding-out'.their, working aprons to receivo the golden shower, actually used a wooden bucket to catch the streumof sovereigns as it gushed forth from, that wonderful fast-tapping machine. . . :■. Truly the Mint is a place which conjures lip a-host of in'the mind of tho ■visitor. How easy it seems to iriako money I And how 'strange it seems that these men, working there ;a!l .their iives, ■ and making millions of sovereigns, should be content with a comparative/pittance to live upon! But' let us follow the gold in its passage through the Mint. .. .'.,-■: '"■ . ' in' Queensland a miner has worked hard for. a'fortnight.' He puts aside his "cradle" and he'makes for the township to replenish his supplies. He flings himself into tho'ramshackle country store, his hand dives doep down into' his capacious hip pocket, and out comes abottle half-full of "dust/ , won from the alluvial deposits. In the payment of that ration account-wb see tho gold in process of transition from its natural state into the uses of sordid commercialism.-. Thence onwards its beauty is its weight, everything. The storekeeper weights it.. He sells it to a bank; the bank weighs it. Tho bank sells it to the, Mint; the Mint weighs it—not once, but mbre,,than_ a dozen times, before it again , passes out in the form of sovereigns;. ■'.■.•' .;. ; ,. . ~ ... ■ ■ . ; : .;' ' The Mint receives gold mvanous forms for minting—in bullion; .retorted, or,, as mentioned above,.alluvial gold. The bullion office furnishes the sender" with' a receipt_ for so nianv ounces, :"said, to contain gold.":" Note tho "caution, displayed by. the institution. Then the gold passes' ..into .theVmel.tijig_ioom,' where its-weight-is again checked.:. It is.'thenplaced in-a fire-clay;pot (each pot.holding' about 1200 ounces), and this is inserted in the.kerosene blast furnace. ..The ikerosene-is carried by a : pipe -to the .furnace, where a. blower atomises it, and when the kerosene is lighted it works spirally aronnd the p/jt, which'in a.minute or two is seen to be whitehot. Then the :gold is poured into- barmoulds, and, after samples have been taken for two independent 'i assaysj ; is returned to the bullion room. Once more it comes back to the melting room—this time for the • refining process. Again it is. weighed. It, is refined b' means of ohlorino gas, which is passed through-, tho' molten metal by means of a clay-pipe. The resultant fine gold, is then melted with copper to form: standard bars 2ft. 4inj Jong of 22 carat—24 carat being pure gold. ":.."" i . ' f , The scene then shifts, to the rolling room where the standard'bars of gold 2ft.-.4in.' long and .four-tenths-of. an inch thick,/pass through three pairs of rollers 32 times, finally ■emerging in tho form of ".fillets" (suggestive of the veal butcher), Oft. long, and onetwentieth of an inch '.thick—-the standard thickness of a sovereign. Thcnext operation i consists of punching the_ blank'sovereigns out of the' "fillets/ , a.nd ringinc; them to detect any that are "dumb," i.e., split or defective. Tho most difficult work hero is that of. the "tryer." "Ho ascertains the -relative weights of the • various f'fillets" of gold, and apportions them to various machines, so that: the slightest rednction in : the thiqlcriess of the ' "fillet" may be compensated for by a minute increase in the' diameter of the punching instrument. To ascertain'any variation from standard thickness,, two sovereign blanks are stamped out of overy "fillet," and tried bv weighing in the sensitive assay balance. Each sovereign is supposed to weigh .123 J grains, and. the limit of variation allowed—either on . the light side or the heavy side^—is one-fifth (if a grain. If,\ however, .a thousand sovereigns were made even that' infinitesimal amount heavier than standard, it would represent a loss of 30s. to the Mint. "We reckon that 25,000 sovereigns is a fair day's work," remarked the officer-in-charge of this department. • . . • . . ■ ...- '

After this the greasy sovereign "blanks" are washed in hot water and.soda, and dried in a steam tub. Coming.out.fresh from the bath they go through a machine which.turns up the edges of the blanks, to assist in the process of striking. The annealing machine then takes them in hand,_ and they are heated for about forty minutes in the oven, so as to make them ready for the impression. Then tho blanks;pass into'the coining machine, which stamps them on both sides, and gives tnera the milled edge—the three operations being porformed'simultaneously. The finished coins pour into a wooden bucket on the floor, at the rate of 90 per , minute.' The final operation is the. testing .of the sovereign by automatic balances, which separate the coins into three receptacles —for light, medium, and heavy coins. '• The light coins arc rejected, and begin the operation again in the melting room. But the medium and heavy coins pass tlirouch the carefully-guarded gates of the institution, to bring happinessto'so many human beings.