A VISIT TO THE SYDNEY MINT.

New Zealander, Volume XVIII, Issue 1715, 16 August 1862, Page 5

A VISIT TO THE SYDNEY MINT.

[ISY AX ADELAIDE GENTLEMAN ON A VISIT TO NEW SOUTH WALES.I

The building set apart by the Sydney Government for the the Mint forms a portion of a row of old buildings, including the Infirmary and Houses of Legislature, which bear the date of 1814; and although recently impaoved, neither exterior nor interior would impress the mind of "a stranger with an idea of its public importance. A solitary sentry is posted at the gate, reminding a resident of the time when the troops having been withdrawn for the New Zealand war, their duties were performed by the volunteers ; and possibly also reminding him of a certain occasion, " when the drum beat at dead of night," and the volunteers turned out to repel an enemy, which proved to be Grimalkin " making night hideous" from the roof; or of another occasion when policeman X on venturing to examine the door was arrested and incarcerated by the vigilent volunteer sentry until such time as it could clearly appear that he carried his baton under proper authority. However, lobster and bluebottle are now in their proper places, and the single specimens present apparently at peace. Having a desire to inspect the mechanical operations of an institution interesting in itself, and also as connected with the gold discoveries and produce of this and the neighbouring colony, I had availed myself of the kind offices of a friend known to the Master of the Mint, to whom an order was granted, making him responsible for those who accompanied him. On presenting this order we were at once shown into the melting-room, which is neither largo nor remarkable, but bears some resemblance to a good sized kitchen. Along one side of the room we saw a row of small brick furnaces, each having a round opening at the top covered with a heavy iron lid, and a large number of crucibles were stacked in various parts of the room. On inquiring into the processes we were shown some small rough ingots of a bright yellow colour. These had undergone the first process of melting from the raw state of dust. The second process was casting in bars. For this purpose a number of iron bars, having grooves on either side, are placed upright in a frame, and screwed up so that the grooves coming together form moulds, into which the metal is poured. A number of the ingots are placed with a little charcoal in a large crucible which is then lowered into one of the furnaces, and left to heat, the gold being occasionally stirred. We saw one of those crucibles of boiling gold raised, and the contents poured into the moulds, eight of which were filled, each one forming a bar of gold worth about £GOO. The bars are then scraped to detach loose portions of gold, and a notch is cut from the end of each for assay, which determines the quantity of alloy to be used. We did not sue the alloying process, but were next shown into a large room, in various parts of which wheels and large rollers were in motion. The golden bars, which are about 20 inches long, are here passed between rollers of various sizes until the bar becomes a band scarcely thicker than a sovereign, and is cut into lengths as it becomes elongated. These hands of gold are now taken to another where the end being thrust through a small opening is seized upon by a pair of pincers, and the band drawn forcibly through, coming out the thickness of a sovereign and wide enough for two. These are then passed through a machine in which two cutters descend in rapid strokes on the band as it passes through, cutting out two pieces at every stroke the sine of sovereigns. The golden pieces are then taken to the weighingmachine, which is a beautiful piece of mechanism, placed in a room apart. It is, I believe, an invention of the late or present manager of the Bank of England. A number of the pieces being placed in a shoot or groove at the top, drop one by one on the end of a small balance, which, according to the weight of the piece and the consequent amount of depression, catches in either of three notches, thereby throwing the piece either into the "light," " medium," or '* heavy" box. The medium weights are reserved for coinage, and the light and heavy pieces are remelted. Bv the various processes I have mentioned the metal is rendered too hard to receive the dye, and the pieces have, therefore, to be exposed for a short time to the heat of a furnace, and as this has the effect of discolouring them, they are then dipped into sulphuric acid mixed with water, and afterwards washed in cold water. They are now taken into the coining-room, and having passed through a small machine tended by a boy of corresponding proportions, which has the effect of thickening them at the edges, they are ready for the dye. At length we saw the final process—a man was sitting before a machine of no great size which he was feeding with blank gold pieces, and which was repaying him in coin. It was difficult to see clearly how this machine worked, but the pieces being placed in a shoot above fell one by one into a small hole where the piece just fitted, the hole being in ] a slide or detached portion of the machine which moved forward and placed the piece over the Queen's head; the stamp then descended and gave the impression, and the piece, now converted .into a coin, was withdrawn and passed down a slide to make room for another. On the whole, I was much pleased with the visit. I had seen the gold in dust and ingots, bars and bands, and in strips which looked as if they had been operated upon by a wad-cutter, but the only sight which would justify feelings akin to the first symptoms of kleptomania was the glittering piles of coin as it came from the dye andlayaboutinneglectedheaps. The Sydney sovereign is intrinsically worth about 2§d. more than the English—a fact not overlooked by some, who send largo numbers home to England to bo remelted.-— South Australian Register.