The geometric lathe of the Treasury of the United States, is worked by Mr. Tichenor, who has been a skilled artist in such machinery for more than thirty years. There are no more interesting objects in the Treasury, than the line of clear-eyed men who sit bent over their tasks, their subtle lines tracing the exquisite vignettes which have made the engravings of the United States Treasury so famous. Here is one who has been tracing these lines of beauty for more than forty years: his hair is white, but his keen, strong sight—drawing harmony, poetry, nature, and life, out of barest outline—remains undimmed.
CHAPTER XXXI.
THE WORKERS IN THE TREASURY—HOW THE MONEY IS MADE.
The Dollar with the Counters—In the Tubs—Getting a Wetting—Servants of Necessity—That Scorching Roof—Brown Paper Bonnets—Earning their Daily Dollar—The Work Progressing—In the Press—A State of Dampness—Squaring Accounts—Calling for a Thousand Sheets—Accounting for Them—Superintending the Work—The Face-printing Division—The United States “Sealer”—One Hundred and Thirty-five Presses at Work—Printing Cigar-Stamps and Gold-Notes of Many Colors—Presses “Flying”—Quick with Dangerous Motion—With a Begrimed Face—The “Help-mate” of his Toil—The Fiery Little Brazier—What the Man Does—The Woman’s Work-The Automatic Register—An Observer Without a Soul—Our Damp Little Dollar—The Drying Room—The First Wrinkles—Looking Wizened and Old—Rejuvenating a Dollar—Underneath Two Hundred and Forty Tons—Smooth and Polished—Precious to the Touch—A Virgin Dollar—The “Sealer” at Work—Mutilated Paper—What the Women are Paid—The Surface-Sealing Division—Seal Printing—The Aristocratic Green Seal—The Numbering Division—Attended Solely by Women and Girls—Critically Examined—A Lady Charged with Errors—Securing Adequate Care—Dividing the Dollars—To Start Alone—Ladies Serene at Work—Snowy Aprons and Delicate Ribbons—Needling the Sheet—A Blade that Does Not Fail—Sorting the Notes—The Manipulation of the Ladies—The Dollar “in its Little Bed”—Dollar on Dollar—“Awaiting the Final Call”—The Mandate of Uncle Sam—Fourteen Divisions—Making up Accounts—Tracing a Note—A Perfect System of “Checks”—The Safeguards—The Chief of the Bureau.
O my! that dollar! I left far back, flying through the fair hands (more or less) of thirty lovely “counters,” to find it here, sopped in the tubs of the “wetters.”
Long trough-like tubs run down the middle of an attic-room, at whose sides the roof slopes so low, a child could not stand under it. Even at its apex, a slender girl beside her tub can scarcely stand upright. At either side of the long troughs are rowed maids and matrons, some fair and young, some old and worn, all bearing unmistakably the mark of the servant of necessity. So near and hot to the brain is the scorching roof, each woman wears upon her head a covering of brown paper, for protection. Who will say these lowly servants of the Government do not earn the scanty pittance of their daily dollar?
In the “wetting division” is received, counted, and “wet down,” all the paper that is to be plate printed. Here, in different stages of progression, we see blank sheets wetted for first printing, and sheets in preparation for second, third, and even fourth printing. The counters of this division put every twenty sheets in the hands of the wetters, who place them between cloths and submerge them in the liquid of the tubs before them. Every one thousand sheets, thus wetted, are placed between wooden boards, under the pressure of two hundred and fifty pounds. In these cerements they remain for three or four hours, when they are taken out, the top sheets made to change places with the middle ones, that uniform dampness may be secured. The sheets are then laid again between the weights, to remain till the next morning, when they are taken out, piled up under damp cloths to wait the call of the plate-printers. All this systematic saturation is indispensable to the securing of a fine print impression.
MAKING MONEY.—THE ROOM IN THE TREASURY BUILDING WHERE THE GREENBACKS ARE PRINTED
A distinct account is kept with each printer, which must be “all right” before he goes home. For example, a plate-printer calls at the wetting division for a thousand sheets. These are given him, and charged at once on the books of the division. As fast as he prints his work, he sends it to the office of his printing division, and is credited with all the work that he has accomplished. At the close of the day, if he has any sheets left unprinted, he returns them to the wetting division, and is credited with them as sheets returned. His work performed and work returned must then be ascertained, and his account strictly balanced, before he can leave the Treasury.
The wetting division is superintended by Mr. J. H. Lamb, who, with Mr. Ward Morgan, the head of the face-printing division, Mr. Edgar of the examining division, and Mr. Evans, the United States Sealer, have all been chosen to preside over their distinct divisions on account of their practical experience in plate-printing, gained by personal toil at the press itself.