NUMBERING 3IAC111NES differ from the apparatus escribed under MACIIINES, CALCULATING, in being less complicated, and (for the most part) in perfunning operations of a less comprehensive character. Their work is that of numbering, or enumerating, and registering the results in some conspicuous way, with or without printing.
In the article MINT, a description is given of Colonel Harness's machine for weighing the blank pieces of gold which are to be stamped into sovereigns and half-sovereigns; and mention is made of another machine, invented by Mr. Cotton, employed at the Bank of England. As an example of one of those machines which calculate, or rather enumerate, by means of weighing, a few words of description may be given here. It is computed that 30,000 sovereigns pass over the Bank counter every day ; and as it is necessary to ascertain whether these are of duo weight, Mr. Cotton, when Governor of the Bank, in 1843, invented a machine to lessen the anxious labours of the bullion weighers, and caused it to be constructed by Mr. Napier. A pile of gold coins is placed in a small hopper at the top of the apparatus, and passes down a tube. A system of clockwork within the machine then seizes the lowest coin of the pile, and places it on a little platform, shaped like a quadrant, suspended over ono end of a balanced beam. If the coin is of standard weight, a small tongue or slider advance. and pushes it into one division of a till or box ; if light, another tongue pushes it into a second division of the same till. No account is taken of those coins which are heavier than the standard; for such specimens are extremely rare. The tongues act at right angles to each other. While ono coin is being thun weighed, a succeeding ono is on its way from the hopper to the platform, and the moment the preceding coin is dissessal of, another supplies its place. Each machine can weigh 10,000 sovereigun in six hours, separating all which are lower than the standard by a quantity so small as a fraction of a grain.
These machine's as well as Baron Leguier's for separating coins Into three k,,esnips, according as they are true, light, or heavy ; and Captain Smith s, fur testing rupees at the Calcutta mint—perform their working by weighing. There in, however, a coin-counting machine employed at the Cahfornia mint. The coins are thrown in sufficient qnantity on a peculiar kind of tray, and shaken • they fall into oblong and all superfluous coins slide off the tray is held sloping. In a
eery few seconds, ono layer of coins covers the whole surface of the tray ; and then the number is known to be 1000, neither more nor loss.
Very ingenious machines are now made for combining numbering and dating with printing. Among many other kinds, the remarkable machine for numbering railway tickets was invented Li the late Mr. Thomas Edminidson, while a station-clerk on the Newcastle and Carlisle railway. To facilitate the interchange of traffic between different companies, it is necessary that each passenger'. ticket should be numbered, and Edmondaon's machine is so contrived as to print the consecutive numbers of a whole series by a process nearly automatic. The colour of the cardboard is selected by the respective companies; and the general particulars, as to stations, class of train, and number of ticket, are printed at the establishment of the manufacturers; but the day of the month is printed in a few seconds, by a small machine in front of the booking-clerk. In the general printing, so done that one person can print 300 per minute, a pile of blank tickets is placed inside a receptacle, which also contains a little torus of typo relating to the names of the stations and the class of carriage. A ribbon saturated with ink, travelling over a wheel, is brought in contact with the type, which is instantly pressed down upon one of the blank tickets ; the tickets are withdrawn ono by one by a feeder from the bottom of the pile, and placed just in the proper spot for the inked type to act upon it. Every ticket receives a number, varying from 0 to 10,000. Raised numbers are engraved-on the peripheries of two brass wheels, which revolve at different velocities; different numbers are presented for inking after each printing, in such a way that a aeries of tickets receive their numbers in proper order. It is not possible for the machine to print these numbers erroneously, so long as it remains in working order. Tho small upright apparatus on the booking-cicrk's counter at a railway-station is the dating press. It contains wheels, types, ink, and an inking ribbon ; the clerk inserts one end of each ticket a little way between two cylinders, and draws it smartly away again instantly, with the data printed on it ; all he has to do else is to change the date-types once a day, and to see occasionally that the ribbon is properly saturated.