American Association. 297 



tion ; a christian church, had been organised among them, and he 

 had a copy of the gospel according to St. John, which w^ 

 printed from type set by them alone." 



BAXK KOTE COUXTERFEITS. 



*' Professor Silliman read a paper on the means adopted for the 

 prevention of counterfeiting Bank ]!^otes. 



The iirst attempt of this kind was made by Mr. Syropian, an 

 American gentleman. His plan was to print his note in colours, 

 between which there was no photographic contrast. He therefore 

 used for the print a blue of a bright colour, and a buff, 

 covering the whole ground, except where there were white spots 

 left for beauty or for the figures representing value. This prevent- 

 ed photographic imitations, and to guard against the anastatic or 

 lithographic arts, he covered the whole face with an oleaginous 

 matter which left no chemical contrast. The great objection to 

 the plan was its want of beauty and its liability to spoil by finger 

 marks and dust upon the oily material In fact nothing was so 

 good in an artistic point of view as carbon ink on white paper. 

 Mr. Syropian, therefore, next attempted to make use of cycloidal 

 lines drawn over the whole surface of the note, and printed in 

 red, using for the design a black ink, which was fugitive in its 

 character. The patent was for the use of two fugitive inks, the 

 black being more fugitive than the red. He could not praise 

 very highly this' second experiment, for on holding one of the 

 notes to the window the black was found to be transparent. A 

 photograph made from this note was fair, not, however, good 

 enough to answer the purpose of a counterfeit ; but the great ob- 

 jection to it was that the black could be removed without removing 

 the red, and the red without injury to the black, which opened 

 the way at once to the counterfeiter. This Mr. Silliman illus- 

 trated by a great many changes which he had produced on 

 one of these notes. In this difficulty then what was to be done ? 

 He held in this haiid a note printed on a green tint, produced 

 by sesqui-oxyde of Chromium — an invention which originated 

 in this Province with Mr. Hunt ; both colors here were un- 

 changeable by anything which the chemist had at present at 

 his disposal. At least, in praciice, neither could be decomposed 

 without destroying the paper as well. The usual plan of altering 

 bills was to wash out the figures and insert ethers ; but here were 

 two colors both alike unmanageable. They were not so beautiful 

 as wliite and black; but beauty must be sacrificed to safety. 



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