4 



exam 



been noticed,) I took an opportunity to search for the cause, and 

 when found, it was, in my machine, remedied with great ease. 

 I had only to lower the medal, allowing the touch to follow it 

 down, until a line, drawn from the point of contact to the joint 

 or fulcrum on which the touch turned, was at the proper angle of 

 descent, and from the great number of productions which I have 



ned, there must be many besides Mr. Saxton and myself, 

 who have got over the difficulty with the same ease. 



I have been thus circumstantial, in order to shew how the re- 

 sult was arrived at. The circumstances which I have detailed 

 will be recollected, in general, by all those who were in the estab- 

 lishment of Murray, Fairman & Co. at the time, but fully and 

 particularly remembered by Mr. Gobrecht. All of this may have 

 little to do, perhaps, with medal ruling in the abstract, the origin 

 of which, in its truth and simplicity, may be made known in a 

 few words. No one's ingenuity was taxed for this particular pur- 

 pose. The movement taken from the Rose Engine, and by me 

 applied to a ruling machine of my own invention, was designed 

 for procuring waved lines and nothing more. When it was put 

 in motion, it copied the wave with great truth and precision, and 

 at the same time manifested, in a manner not to be mistaken, the 

 fact, that it had also the power of copying medals with equal ex- 

 actness and beauty. 



In your account also it is said, that copies could not be taken 

 immediately from the coins, because the picture would be revers- 

 ed and the legends would read backwards, and that it was, there- 

 fore, necessary to obtain the impressions in metal hard enough to 

 bear the tracer, and that without the seasonable invention of the 

 electrotype by M. Jacobi, the work could not have gone on. 



The modern art which yon speak of, ingenious as it most cer- 

 tainly is and useful for many purposes, does not seem to me to 

 be necessary, nor even called for in copying coins. The copies 

 which I send you were taken sixteen years ago from the original 

 medals. The devise may be reversed on the plate, simply by 

 having the plate supported with its face down and the etching 

 point pressed up to it, or by bringing the touch to act on the med- 

 al in the same way. Impressions of coins or medals, ^ necessary 

 at all, are obtained with great facility in shellac, a material far 

 preferable, in my opinion, to any metal whatever for such pur- 

 pose, as it resists the tracer perfectly and causes no wear to its 

 point. 



