MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 109 



the ' wiping' heretofore required in printing from steel or copper plates, sub- 

 stantially as described." It will be observed that the patentee intimates, in 

 his claims, that if the steel or copper plates are covered with a mercurial 

 amalgam, as he proposes, they may be printed on common presses, with 

 types, the same as wood engravings. Should this discovery prove thus prac- 

 ticable, it will be a valuable auxiliary to the typographic art. 



MACHINE FOR DISTRIBUTING TYPES. 



Attempts to facilitate the setting of type have been very frequently made, 

 but we have now to chronicle a very beautiful, ingenious and, so far as tested, 

 very successful machine for distributing or returning type to their boxes after 

 the printing is completed. The inventor is Mr. Victor Beaumont of New 

 York. The machine is automatic and distributes with perfect accuracy every 

 thing but two-em and three-em quadrats without any attendance except to 

 supply the matter at short intervals. The types are carefully picked apart 

 and are left standing in lines suitable for a type-setting machine, or tumbled 

 unceremoniously into boxes, as may be desired, the latter being easier as 

 requiring less labor and care hi their removal by the attendants. The principle 

 on which the machine is able to discriminate and put each type in its appro- 

 priate place is that of feeling, not the face, but the sides of the body. Each 

 type is prepared expressly for the purpose by cutting three nicks on its edges, 

 differently arranged for each letter. The letter or, for example, is manufactured 

 with three nicks, called one, two, and three, counting from the highest ; c has 

 one, two and four ; b has two, three and five, etc. The channel leading to 

 each box is provided with a mouth of the same form, carefully executed in 

 hardened steel to withstand the wear, and the lines of type are pressed up 

 successively against all these channels until the right one is presented, when 

 the first type in the line pops in, leaving the next to commence a similar 

 round. The receiving channels are arranged in a circle, faces inward, and the 

 lines of type to be distributed are ranged radially in a horizontal wheel of 

 somewhat less diameter. This wheel is properly geared and rolls around 

 within the inclosure, presenting each type rapidly, but gently, to every aper- 

 ture. The lines are thrust outward in the wheel by suitable springs, which 

 are simultaneously compressed by a simple movement when it is desired to 

 supply more matter. In working out the details of this machine the most 

 beautiful simplicity has been arrived at, and every type is seized, on entering 

 its proper channel, by a spring lever of sufficient force to tear it from its 

 fellows, however adhesive may be its alkaline and inky bond. A similar 

 lever guards the exit of each type from the wheel, and the hold is slackened 

 only during the instant it presses fairly against the steel mouth of a channel 

 for its reception. Thirty lines are received at once in the wheel, and the 

 machine has been for several months in operation without appearing to wear, 

 or otherwise injure the sides of the type. The nicks cause a slight annoyance 

 by catching the rule in setting, but this evil will probably be overcome by 

 practice. Each machine will distribute but one size of type ; but the inventor 

 states that they may be so constructed as to be easily adapted to the different 



