COINING MACHINERY. 



721 



Coining 

 Machinery. 



The new 



Mint. 



Mr Boul- 

 I on'i inven- 

 tions. 



Plates of 

 the ma- 

 chinery. 



Pouring 

 machine. 

 PLATE CC. 

 Fig*. 1,2, 

 S, 4, and 5, 



Boilers. 

 Fig*. 6 & 7. 

 Circular 

 shears. 



Fig. 4. 



Figs. 1,2, 

 and 3. 



Coining 

 press. 



Melting. 



PtiTt CC. 



Fig. 1. 



Crane. 



amined by proper officers belonging to the establish- 

 ment. 



In 1811, the Royal Mint was removed from the Tower 

 of London to a very magnificent building erected for 

 the purpose on the east side of Tower-hill, from the 

 designs of Mr Johnson, architect. The system of coin- 

 ing by machinery, practised in this new establishment, 

 was, in great part, invented by the late Matthew Boulton, 

 Esq. His original apparatus was erected at his celebra- 

 ted works at Soho, near Birmingham, in 1788 and 1789, 

 and was first employed in coining for the East India 

 Company, and some of the earliest copper coins issued 

 by the French republic. The beauty of the coins which 

 he produced, occasioned him to be employed by contract 

 by our government, to coin the new copper issued in 

 1797. Since this period, he has recoined an immense 

 number of Spanish dollars, without remelting them ; also 

 copper for the East India Company, and several foreign 

 governments ; which shewed the advantage of the inven- 

 tion to be EO great, that the governments of Russia and 

 Denmark, each procured a complete series of machines 

 from Mr Boulton, under the sanction of acts of Parliament, 

 and erected them in their Mints at Petersburgh and Co- 

 penhagen. In the new Mint erected on Tower-hill, a 

 complete set of Mr Boulton's machines have been at 

 work since 1811, with great success. 



Knowing that it would be highly interesting to our 

 readers, we have obtained a series of drawings of these 

 machines, which are contained in Plates CC. CCI.;CCII. 



The first of these, at Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, contains 

 drawings of the crane, and pouring machine which lifts 

 the melting pots out of the furnace, and pours their con- 

 tents into the ingot moulds. 



Figs. 6 and 7 are the laminating rollers, used for flat- 

 tening out the ingots into plates of the proper thickness : 

 these plates are cut into narrow slips by the circular 

 shears shewn in Plate CCI. at Fig. 4. The strips are 

 afterwards rolled again, to reduce them to the exact 

 thickness of the intended coin. From these plates cir- 

 cular pieces of blanks are cut out by the machinery re- 

 presented in Figs. 1, 2, and 3 ; and after being properly 

 blanched and scoured, have their impressions struck in 

 the press represented in Plate CCI I. 



The furnaces in which the metal is melted, are eight 

 in number, and are so arranged on opposite sides of the 

 melting-house, in two rows of four in each, that the crane, 

 represented in Fig. 1, Plate CC. being placed in the 

 centre between four, will, by turning round upon its 

 center, come over the center of any one of the furnaces, 

 and will lift a pot of melted metal from any one of the 

 four ; therefore, two cranes so situated, will command 

 the whole. The crane consists of a vertical column AB, 

 fixed firmly in the ground with a flanch at its base ; round 

 this the gib C, D, E swings, being united by two col- 

 lars at C and E, so as to swing freely all round ; e is a 

 frame of iron, bolted to the gib to support the pivots of 

 the roller or barrciyj and also the axis of the pinion g, 

 which works the cog-wheel A on the end of the barrel ; 

 the chain from the barrel passes over the pulley F fixed at 

 the top of the gib, immediately over the center of the 

 column, and thence proceeds to the pulley D at the ex- 

 tremity of the gib. The frame e also supports a third 

 axis i, having an endless screw upon it, acting in the 

 teeth of a wheel, fixed upon the main column, so that 

 by turning the winch Ic at the end of this spindle, the 

 whole crane is turned round on its axis. At the extremity 

 of the chain, a pair of tongs G are suspended, the claws 

 of which take hold of two projecting eare of the melting 



VOJU VI. PART II, 



pot, and then it is lifted out of the furnace by turning 

 the handle of the pinion g ; then by turning the winch 

 k, the crane is swung round, and the pot is conducted to 

 the pouring machine. 



This machine has an iron frame HH erected from the 

 floor, to support the two pivots / of a frame or cradle 

 which receives the melting pot I, and on which pivots it 

 can be inclined by means of an arch K and proper wheel 

 work, so as to pour its contents into the ingot moulds, 

 which . are placed in a carriage L, (shewn separately in 

 Fig. 5). The cradle for the melting pot is com- 

 posed of an axis e on which it swings ; a bar m proceed- 

 ing from it, and having the rack K fixed to it at the 

 lower end ; also an iron hoop n, which embraces the pot 

 round the neck, and has two bars o proceeding one on 

 each side to the lower end. The hoop n, as well as the 

 latter bars, are united to the axis and the bar m by hinges, 

 so that they will open out to receive the pot, but being 

 drawn together by a screw in the hoop at n, hold it quite 

 fast : The teeth of the rack K are engaged by a pinion p-, 

 situated on an axis which goes across the frame, and re- 

 ceives its motion, by equal bevel wheels, from an axis q, 

 which is moved by means of equal bevel wheels upon the 

 end of a third axis, parallel with the first ; at its opposite 

 extremity this carries a wheel r, which is turned by a 

 pinion * having a handle at the extremity of its axis. 

 The object of this train of wheels is, that by turning the 

 handle of the pinion *, the workman will be able to in- 

 cline the rack and melting pot with a very gradual mo- 

 tion, to empty its contents into the moulds. The ingot 

 moulds are made of cast iron, as shewn in Fig. 4, each in 

 two separate halves A, B, having fiat surfaces A, B to form 

 the body of the ingot, and rising edges ab composing 

 the sides of the mould ; one of the halves has also a simi- 

 lar rise c to make the bottom, so that two halves, when 

 put together, form a proper cavity or mould to cast an 

 ingot, as is shewn in Figure 1 , which represents the 

 two halves put together ready for casting. The moulds 

 are set up, a great many of them together, in an iron 

 frame mounted on a carriage, shewn sidewise in Fig. 2, 

 and endwise in Fig. 3. The carriage is an iron plate 

 LL, moving on four wheels, and having the iron frame 

 MM, NN for the moulds upon it. This frame has two 

 screws tt at each end, which being forced up against the 

 moulds P, placed in the frame, hold them all together 

 and in their places, so as to make all the joints tight ; 

 they rest upon an iron plate, suspended by two screws 

 vv, by which it can be elevated or depressed at pleasure, 

 to suit moulds of different sizes. The carriage runs upon 

 a railway laid across the floor of the melting-house, so as 

 to bring it beneath the pouring machine, as represented 

 in Fig. 1. In this situation, a rack to, Figs. 2 and 3, 

 which is fixed to the carriage by small columns, comes 

 where its teeth will engage with a wheel x, Fig. 1 : This 

 is turned round by a pinion, carrying the handle y on the 

 end of its spindle ; and therefore by turning this, the wheel 

 x communicates a gradual and regular motion to the car- 

 riage, bringing the moulds, one by one, beneath the lip of 

 the melting pot to be filled with metal. The distance 

 of the moulds from the pot, can be regulated at pleasure 

 by shifting the frame MN sidewise upon the carriage, 

 which is done by means of a screw at each end, as shewn 

 at W, Fig. 3. 



The furnaces in which the metal is melted are ex- 

 tremely well contrived, having the flues for the draught 

 into the chimney proceeding from three different sides 

 towards the top, instead of going altogether from one 

 side, aa in common air furnaces, by which means the heat. 

 4, Y 



Coinine 

 Machinery. 



Pouring 

 machine. 



PLATE CC. 

 Figs. 5. 



Ingot 

 moulds. 



Fig. 4. 



Fig. 2. 

 Fig. 3. 



Figs. &.;.. 

 Fig. 1. 



Fig. 3. 



Furnaces. 



