U.S. GOLD ECONOMY

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 May 1949, Page 6

U.S. GOLD ECONOMY

The United States mint save between 75,000 and 100,000 dollars’ worth of gold and silver yearly by such measures as making workers take a bath each afternoon to wash gold dust from their bodies. Congress learnt of the anti-waste measures when Mrs Nellie Taylor Ross, director of the mint, arrived at Washington to request the 194950 budget appropriation. “How much money does the bathtaking practice save the taxpayers?” asked Representative Gordon Canfield, of New Jersey. Mrs Ross and her assistant, Mr Leland Howard, explained that baths were only part of the precautions the mint took against loss. Bath Water Prospected

The mint provides workers with aprons, gloves, and spats to prevent gold dust lodging in their clothes, between' the toes, and under the finger nails, Mr Howard said. >' When protective clothing is worn cut, it is burnt to recover gold dust lodged, in is. Workers’ bath water is “prospected” along with all scrubbing water used for cleaning purposes. Floor sweepings are specially treated, and periodically chimneys and walls are scraped to recover gold dust'lodged there. A gas catcher on a chimney absorbs any gold which might, otherwise escape in gaseous form when gold is melted down in cauldrons. After hearing all this, Congress gave Mrs Ross every cent she requested.