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Show I New Government Assay Office Ii The now government assay oflleo. which Is to ho. opened in this city, will not bo ready for occupancy before Janu-arv Janu-arv 15. U hnd hoen xpecrod lhat all machinery ami ofilec fixtures would be Installed "so that the door.s of this new ontcrprl.se now for Salt Lako. at least-would least-would have awuns open a fow days ago. or. to bo accurate, on January 1. several sev-eral of the immense furnaces which aro used In the melting- process havo not arrived, ar-rived, and until they appear and arc installed in-stalled thero will he "nothing' doing-. The work of establishing thu assay office of-fice In this city has been under tiu? direction di-rection of L. S. Kerfooti who Is In chrjrgc of a llko oflleo at Seattle. Mr. Kcrfoot has been in this city for the parj. two months, and as a result the city i ' shortly boast of as tine an assay ofiuo as thero Is to be, found in the country. It will be larger than many, so far as size and capacity is concerned, and In point of equipment will be the leader of all It3 competitors. , The general public, and even those Interested In the Installment of tho assay office, hardly realize tho great a.lvan-' a.lvan-' tages to the state, city, and district or this new movo of tho treasury department. depart-ment. The gold and silver bullion which . is produced In this district will Irts taken to tho assay office, and after being assayed, as-sayed, the mint, through the local assay office, will pay for tho bullion tho day i after tho assay Is made. Tho inonoy will I be paid out In this city. To givo an Idea of the amount of money handled bv an assay office of this type. It has been pointed out that upon tho ! establishment of tho Seattle assay office It was calculated that the output would i be approximately $2,000,000. One year after tho oflleo had been in operation it was found lhat instead of this sum the output amounted to $20,000,000. This fact makes It impossible to even approximate the amount to be handled by tho now oflleo. but it will climb into large figures, according- to tho productiveness of the 1 district. Mining men will rejoice when the door3 i of tho new offlco are thrown open, for It will moan a great saving to mine own- i era and bank!: In tho freight and insur- i anco brought about by shipping bullion ! J. U. ELDREDGE, JR., Assayer in Charge TJ. S. Assay;Offlco. I from. hero lo Denver or any other point. I The nearest assay oflleo Ih located In the Colorado oltv, and to ship bullion there a rato of about $2 on every $1000 of bullion bul-lion Is charged, and the Insuranco amounts to a like sum. When largo shipments ship-ments of bullion are made tho tlmo consumed con-sumed In trawl between here and Den-er Den-er Is considerable, and the Interest upon thu gold shipped goes up at a rapid rato Tho president has appointed .7 U. Eld-rodgo. Eld-rodgo. Jr., assayer In charge, lie will appoint his own cashier. Seven members' of the office staff, thoso who do the practical prac-tical work of assaying, arc all civil service serv-ice appointees. ."o bullion will be received with more than S00 parts to tho 1000 parts of base; that Is. more than eight-tenths foreign material. Any quantity of bullion will ho received which Is sufllclont In value to pay tho assaying charges, which will be i $1 per assay, wholly regardless of the size of tho bar or quantity of bullion. I An additional charge of 1 cents per ounco for refining will also bo made, and In I some cases an alloy tariff will bo charged, ; Tho office will bo so arranged that tho public or owners of bullion con watch I their bullion pass through tho entire I process until the cashier writes a check in payment for It. Tho bullion will bo received by two clerks, who will weigh It independently of each other. They will then compare their respectlvo weights In the presence of tho owner of tho bullion. Tho metal will next bo taken to tho m.'ltlng room, where It will be inletcd mio a bar. This Is dono to guard against deception and lo mako euro tho motals aro thoroughly mixed. Two assaycrs will take a samplo of the bar and test It, but they will not be allowed to eomparo notes afler the test. Following this, tho sample will bo fused In a go-s furnaco and tho load, copper or other base metal will bo oxidized oxi-dized and driven off, or will be absorbed In a cupel of bono ash. Tho silver and gold will remain In this cupel In a samll round button. This will bo rolled Into a thick foil and placed In a Hash with diluted nitric acid, which will dissolve tho silver and leave tho gold, a black, spongy mass. In tho bottom of tho (lask. This will be removed to a small porcolalp cruclblo and oagln put into tho furnaco, when tho black portion or tne sediment, which la carbon, will bo burnt up and St ho gold will be loft bright and shining. The next process Is to weigh the gold o'ii a pair of delicate ucales. which weigh to five-hundred ths of one milligram. Tho weighing la done by two assaycrs, at tli e conclusion of which they comparu notes and the result must bo within four ten-thousandths ten-thousandths In the scale of fineness ratio used In the original weighing of tho sample. Immediately this Is over with, tho bullion seller can get :l" check for tho value of his gold. Tho gold thus secured will be stored In vaults, pendlgn Its shipment either to Denver or San Francisco. Tho running expense of tho offlco for tho first six months will bo about $20,000. according to Mr. Korfoot, and tho" salaries sala-ries of tho force to bo appointed w!l amount to about $13,000 yearly. |
