DESTRUCTION OF BANKNOTES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3392, 7 December 1911, Page 7

DESTRUCTION OF BANKNOTES.

BURNT, BOILED AND PULPED. j It will come as a surprise to those whose chief difficulty in regard to banknotes is to be able to keep them to learn that there are yet others for whom the difficulty is how to get rid of them, says the Scientific American. Yet this is quite .the case of those who have to destroy in bulk paper money which lias been' used in representing money values. The diiiiculties thus encountered in destroying such paper are well illustrated by the experience of the German imperial printers. In this case the difficulties experienced are further increased by the necessity of coping with very large quantities of waste, for in addition to that arising from printing there is also that of stamp paper spoiled in the gumming, as well as faulty water-marked paper. The methods previously available were three—burning, boiling and pulping. In the first process it has been found even where a special furnace has been used, it has not infrequently happened that while tho outer parts of the packets were destroyed, some of the contents were not even singed. In tho case of stamps or gummed paper the matter was still worse, for the packets baked together into solid block®, the interiors of which were quite intact. In the second place the paper for destruction is placed in iron boilers; lye is added, and the contents then subjected to the prolonged action of steam. As a destructive process for small quantities this is most effectual, as is also that of pulping, a process in which the paper is cut up by revolving in water. In both of these cases there is, however, another difficulty, that of disposing of the product. It cannot ho easily sold, it will not pay to transport, and on hand the sodden, stodgy mass quickly “goes bad.” The German imperial printers therefore decided to try a new way—grinding it up dry. To tin’s end they installed a 40 h.p. Sclilagkreuz mill, which, by a process of hurling, crushing, and tearing, reduces the paper to an almost powder-like form, in which it passes through a sieve into a collecting chamber beneath the mill ready for packing. This, however, was accompanied by a very objectionable feature, especially when dealing with gummed paper in the grinding—such a dust was created that though the workmen engaged wore protectors, it yet persistently filled and blocked their eyes and nostrils.

As tlie work of packing was on this account not only unhealthy, unwillingly performed, and' also uneconomical, efforts were made to find some mechanical means of doing it. Simple as this had seemed at the outset, later it appeared a problem almost unsurmountable. Difficulty after difficulty arose. Among such may be mentioned that a spiral feeder having been devised, it was found that the’paper would sometimes, form into halls as solid as blocks of wood, which defied tlie of a 20 h.p. motor to move them. Nevertheless this difficulty was ultimately overcome.

The imperial printers, therefore, are now to he congratulated upon possessing a machine perfect in its kind. It takes the paper, grinds it up to any size desired, and bags it. Finally, though the paper in tin’s form fetches luit little on account of its consequent shortness of fibre, tlie mill is yet not only paying off the initial outlay, but is also saving a yearly sum in workmen’s wages.