Report Made to the Hon. Thomas Corwin, Secretary of the Treasury, by Professor R.S. McCulloh, of His Operations at the Mint of the United States, in R

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1852 Excerpt: ... APPENDIX. Philadelphia, April 27, 1852. My Dear Sir: Will you do me the favor to reply to the following questions: 1. In what capacity, and for how many years, were you employed in the mint; and what were the services which you rendered me in my recent refining operations? 2. What was the course of my proceedings, and what the results shown by them relatively to the efficiency and economy of my modes of granulating and refining gold bullion? 3. If you know of any difficulties or accidents which occurred in my operations, what were they? 4. From what you witnessed of my mode of refining, what is your opinion, as to its adaptation to the working of large quantities of metal with economy and despatch, in comparison with the old method, now used in the mint? 5. What do you believe to be the reason of the discrepancy between the results from fluxing sweeps, obtained respectively by Mr. Hare, of the assay office, and yourself. Yours, very truly, R. S. McCULLOH. Martin Summers, esq. (2.) Philadelphia, April 29, 1852. Mr. McCuLLOH. Dear Sir: In compliance with your request, I hasten to answer the questions propounded by you to me, in your favor of the 27th instant; and, in doing so, it gives me much pleasure to give my opinion of your method of refining gold. I was employed in the mint for about twenty-seven years, and was foreman in the melting and refining department, I believe, for twentythree years. I also worked in the adjusting room for about two years. I aided you in your late experiments, first, by taking charge of the granulations for you, as they were made, and seeing them properly carried to the separating rooms; afterwards I melted the gold (when refined) into bars; alloyed and made ingots for coining of some of them, and then gathered the giains and re...