344 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



to have considered that this fact would destroy the evidence of 'its being a 

 counterfeit. If it could not be distinguished from the genuine bill, how can 

 it be known that it is not genuine ? And I presume that in most of the 

 cases in which it was supposed that bills had been counterfeited by 

 photography, genuine bills were mistaken for counterfeits. I have seen 

 photographs of bank notes; I have made some myself, but I never saw one 

 that could not be readily detected, or that had been in circulation. Here 

 is a bill printed wholly in black, and there are a great many such in circu- 

 lation. If it is so easy to photograph black notes, why are not these 

 counterfeited ? It must be either because photographers are not able to do 

 it, or because they are all too honest. 



Mr. Gavitt. — Mr. Chairman, I will ask Prof. Seely one question. Here is 

 a bank note with the letters, ONE, in red; now, is it more difficult to 

 photograph that note than it would be if those letters were printed in 

 black ? 



Prof. Seely. — It is more difficult, certainly. 



Mr. Gavitt. — Very well, Mr. Chairman, that is sufficient. I hold that it is 

 •*;he duty of bank officers to furnish the community with every possible 

 safeguard against the danger of being swindled by false notes, and if it is 

 *n any degree more diflScult to counterfeit a note printed in colors, then all 

 notes should be printed in colors, without any regard to the expense. I 

 ■agree with Prof. Seely that the danger of circulating photographs of bank 

 notes is a bugbear, but photography may be employed to produce lithographs 

 of bank notes, which ai'e the most dangerous counterfeits. There was a 

 publication of a bank note detector started a few years ago on a new plan, 

 [t was to have fac-similes on a small scale of all the genuine bank notes 

 in the country. You probably remember the work. Photographs were 

 taken of just one-sixth the size of tlie bills, and then these were transferred 

 10 stone by the photo-lithographic process, and the bills were then printed 

 from the stone. The photographs were made by Mr. Rehn, one of the most 

 skillful photographers in the world, and the prints were perfect copies of 

 the bills. It was only necessary to take a glass that would magnify just 

 six times, and you had the exact thing. The most delicate lines were all 

 reproduced with wonderful accuracy. Some of these lines, being so much 

 reduced in size, were absolutely finer than the fiber of the paper, and we 

 Avere obliged to have a cardboard surface in order to print them. But, of 

 course, if not reduced, they might be printed on bank note paper. Coun- 

 terfeiting by photography is a bugbear, but not by photo-lithography. 



Mr. Powell. — Have any of the United States treasury notes been coun- 

 terfeited ? 



Mr. Gavitt. — They have not. 



The Chairman. — How much of the sesquioxyd of chromium is used for 

 bank note printing ? 



Mr. Gavitt. — Nearly all that is used is used by the American Bank Note 

 company. We have consumed about 10,000 pounds within the last three 

 years. It costs about a dollar a pound in large quantities. 



The Chairman. — There is a process of printing in colors practiced in 

 Germany, called nature printing. A natural object — a leaf, for instance — 

 is placed under a thin sheet of pure lead, and passed between rollers. The 



