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THE BELL SYSTEM TECHNICAL JOUKXAL, JULY 1954 



the wire spring relay. The labor economy of the latter procedure is 

 obvious. To implement this plan it was necessary that straightened wire 

 be available at the molding press in the (juantities required to prevent 

 loss of molding time. To be successful it was important that interrup- 

 tions to the regular reciu"rence of molding cycles, such as rethreading the 

 multiplicity of wires into molding dies, he kept to a minimum. 



The original plainnng envisioned a battery of single strand wire 

 straighteners operating continuously to make relatively long lengths of 

 straightened wire. How to store this wire between the wire straightener 

 and the molding press presented the real problem. An early attempt 

 toward a solution involved winding straightened \\'ire on 3()-inch diame- 

 ter reels until sufficient length had been accumulated for eight hours' 

 molding time. These reels would be mounted ahead of the molding press 

 as shown in Fig. 2, and changed at the end of each eight hour shift. 



Fig. 2 — Sketch showing handling of straightened wire on storage reels. 



