1870.] On the Method of Assaying Silver. 391 



scale; of course successful results from it cannot be expected 

 unless each step in the manipulation be conducted with great 

 care and accuracy, and only then after much practice and ex- 

 perience. 



The natives of this country possess great aptitude in acquiring 

 the skill and confident lightness of touch, so essential for delicate 

 manipulation ; this, added to their characteristic patience, makes 

 them admirable subordinates in an assay laboratory, under judi- 

 cious supervision ;* moreover, their labour is cheap, so that on the 

 whole, the process seems to be especially suitable for an Indian 

 Mint. 



"When bar silver is imported from the Continent, the assays of it, 

 made here, almost invariably correspond most closely with those 

 previously made of it in Paris by the volumetric method. But were 

 further proof needed of the practical accuracy of our system, it is 

 to be' found in the very close proximity to the legal standard, at 

 which the large Indian coinage has been maintained for many 

 years, as annually reported by the assayers to the Eoyal Mint of 

 Great Britain, who test the fineness of the Indian pyx coins 

 by the French humid process. 



Without this method (improved and made more perfect, as it has 

 been, in the hands of successive Assay officers,) it would, to my 

 mind, have been very difficult for the assay establishments of the 

 Indian Mints to have dealt with, in the same time and with the same 

 accuracy, the immense importation of silver to India during the 

 last 15 years. In the single year 1865-66, there was poured 

 into the Indian Mints, and manufactured into coin, silver alone 

 reaching in value to the prodigious amount of over 14 millions 

 sterling. 



The system which enabled the assay officers to value such a 

 rapid and heavy influx with accuracy, and with satisfaction to the 

 importer on the one hand and to the mint (the buyer) on the 



* The Calcutta Assay office lias been fortunate in the possession of its Fore- 

 man, Mr. Frewin, who for over 30 years has been actively engaged in assay 

 operations. He was head assistant in the office under Mr. D o d d when the lat- 

 ter was investigating the adaptation of this system, and no doubt Mr. Frew- 

 in's intelligence and dexterity contributed to its successful introduction and 

 subsequent working ; he has trained numerous subordinates to the laboratory 

 work who have turned out expert manipulators. 



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