Making Millions.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 24 June 1912, Page 4

Making Millions.

PRINTING NOTES AT THE BANK OF ENGLAND.

Poor to the uttermost must be tho imagination and the capacity for wonder of the man who, having stood many times on a 'kerbstone in that very heart xf the world that is in tho thronged space in front of tho Mansion House, the Royal Exchange, and the J3ank of England, has never once reflected, while waiting for an opportunity to thread his way through the thick traffic, that there about him is the richest, most important place on earth.

There are great machinery rooms which, with all their wheels and pulleys and straps, remind a northern man of a busy cotton factory. Every note and every postal order at that moment in circulation was printed here, at those works, where over 250 men are commonly employed.

The paper which is turned into notes comes up in regular supplies, and has done for many decades, from some mills at Laverstoko, in Hampshire. As it arrives nt the bank, most carefully guarded from the moment that it became paper until it becomes money, it is in bundles, carefully counted, of 000 sheets, made to special sizes.

Nearly all the secrets of the Bank of England notes are in the paper itself and not in the printing' upon it, and that is why it is of the utmost consequence that not a sheet of this paper .should ever go astray.

The paper is manufactured from fine Irish linen, and the peculiar properties of the water of the river which flows through the works assist to make it of perfect purity and exceeding strength. In former times the paper from which postal orders (of which 400,000 are on an average printed daily) arc made was also made from linen ; but now the cheaper wood pulp is employed.

The printing of Bank of England cheque forms is done on one machine at the rate of o()0 sheets an hour, each sheet having five forms. A special chemical ink is employed. Two printings are necessary for India currency notes, the pale green figures being impressed before the sheets are passed on for the printing in black.

Then there is a long liuc of half-a-dozen special machines on which the English notes are printed, and which "Visitors are requested not to touch.' ; There is no end to the demand for more notes and new notes. The paper in this case is sent up in sheets the size of two notes; and the sheet is subsequently cut--which is the explanation why theer are to every note three smooth edge.s and one rough one. Each machine works off notes at tho rate of 3000 per hour; a good day's work is represented by L>5,000 notes. If allowance is made for occasional stop]tages of one or two of the machines, 100,000 notes may be printed in this room in one day. To carry the tale of immensity further Jt is found that an average, of 18.000,000 are actually printed here in the course of a year.

Of this number two-thirds are of the Co denomination. Y.-t f,], c t,.,i P , hundreds, and thousands are printed in enormous quantities at time; and there is not a morp awe-inspiring sight in the city than that of one of these machines, only some eight or ten feet long, reeling off in 7, continuous stream oblong sheets of paper, each having the magic "£1000" .stamped on it twice over- the result of which may be the printing of i"l,00(M)00~threo million pounds! - in a single hour.

Tho very richest of multi-million-aires could surely not fail to bo deeply impressed by such a performance. They told me that the day before my visit was paid one machine had b'eon running from morning until night on the t'loo denomination ; notes to the value of two nnd a-half million pounds were the result of its day's labour!

The sheets of paper, which were most carefully counted at the- mills at I.avestoke, are counted again on their arrival at the bank: and when the printing is finished two notes are required for every sheet, or an absolutely convincing explanation as to how it is that any arc missing.

There is an unfailing automatic indicator attached to each machine, registering on the rial every impression that is made, no matter what the medium may be, the proper paper or some substitute. If it .should happen, then, that the register shows that 3000 impressions have been made and only 291)0 Jiote.s are produced a.s the result, the remaining four may lie accounted for in ono or two ways. There may be spoiled notes—which in very seldom the case. Or, if a sheet of paper missed the impression that was intended for it. the impression is automatically made upon a pink sheet in the machine, always in waiting for the purpose; and the pink sheet must be brought up in evidence.

A checker sits at one corner of the machine, and each printed sheet as it comes out passes through his hands. He sees at a glance whether the note is perfect or not, and whether the numbering is in due order. The numbering : boxe3 do their work backwards, as it were, the number following 37,285, for instance, being 37,281; this is r:o in order that the finished notes, which arc delivered by the machine face upwards, may bo in proper consecutive order.

The places from which the notes are printed are prepared and engraved in a workshop to which no strangers are admitted. All that is allowed to those who are not directly concerned with their preparations is a peep through the glass window.