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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dready, post: 720917, member: 11674&quot;]Science Presenting Steam &amp; Electricity to Industry &amp; Commerce</p><p><br /></p><p>This vignette was designed by Edwin H. Blashfield and engraved by Charles Schlecht and G.F.C.Smillie. </p><p>It represents Science presenting Electricity,carrying a roll of wire wound into an electromagnet and Steam,holding a lever which controls the gear of an engine,to Commerce(on our left) and Industry.Depicting our country moving into the Industrial Age.</p><p>&nbsp;It was originally intended to be used on the $50 note but to Blashfields dismay was instead used on the $2 note when the original $2 design, by Will H. Low, was rejected by BEP Chief Johnson.</p><p>This presentation will focus only on Schlecht.</p><p><br /></p><p>Charles Schlecht was born in Stuttgart,Germany in 1843. In 1852, at the age of 9, he emigrated to the U.S. with his parents where they settled in Manhattan,N.Y.C.</p><p><br /></p><p>He began his apprenticeship at the American Bank Note Co. in 1859. He later received further instruction from Charles Burt and Alfred Jones,Two of the periods premier engravers.</p><p><br /></p><p>Sometime in 1864 he left ABNCo for a position at the Western Bank Note Co. I could not find the duration of his stay at Western but he later returned to ABNCo. He was employed there twice until 1893.</p><p><br /></p><p>In 1893 he joined the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Besides his work on currency he also engraved the plates for stamps and other documents. </p><p><br /></p><p>A newspaper article that I found in my research stated that his salary at the BEP was $6000 a year!! It said that this sum of money was more than congressmen made but less than he could make in the free market.</p><p><br /></p><p>Some information that I uncovered indicates that Schlecht became a naturalized citizen on March 15,1869 and about a year and a half later, October 11, 1870, married Clara Thieme in Manhattan. The marriage produced 6 children.</p><p><br /></p><p>I could not find any information for the years between 1900,when he left ABNCo. and his death in 1932, in NYC.</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Thank You,.................John</p><p><br /></p><p>PS: here is the link for the 1894 newspaper article that I mentioned.It appears in the last 2 columns.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; <a href="http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn90059522/1894-09-08/ed-1/seq-3/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn90059522/1894-09-08/ed-1/seq-3/" rel="nofollow">http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn90059522/1894-09-08/ed-1/seq-3/</a>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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