NTMnERING MACHINES. 



NT.M BERING MACHINES. 



eats a number ; it being asserted that number must be more than one. 

 The settlement of such a queitioa depend* upon convention entirely, 

 ad u rerr easy. In the common sense of the word neither 1 nor 

 3 are number* : a number of men, or of pebble*, would suggest the 

 idea of more than two; in fact the colloquial word number meant 

 indefinitely many ; more than the eye can decide on without count- 

 ing ; ffnral, that U to say, u many at require the urtriny which 

 take* place in counting. With different persons thin commencement 

 of number, vulgarly ipeaking, may be different; all person* discern 

 tiurtt without counting, and probably four ; but it in certain that >'re 

 must be severed by most persons, and til probably by all. Those 

 who watch the progress of children can easily see that their scale* of 

 reckoning are successively one and more ; one two, and more ; one, 

 two, three, and more. 



In the common playing-cards we decide by forms, not by numbers ; 

 and were not the nine distinguished from the seven by the different 

 position* of the odd spot, there would be continual mistakes. , 



In mathematical language, every numerical symbol is called number, 

 including 0, 1, fractions, whole numbers, and even infinity. 



The talent of easily combining and remembering numbers, or of 

 calculation, is a perfectly distinct thing from that of mathematical 

 invention, reasoning, or application ; though the two are frequently 

 confounded. Taking mathematician/) of the highest order, some have 

 been singularly gifted in this respect, some distinguished in neither 

 way, and some more than commonly deficient. 



A very deceptive mode of speaking is common with regard to 

 numbers, which divides them into cardinal and ordinal. Tims one, 

 /wo, three, Ac., are cardinal numbers, while Jirtt, tecoiid, third, &c., are 

 ordinal. The real distinction is that of numeral nnun and numeral 

 protviMHt, to the latter of which the term ordinal might properly be 

 applied. That first, second, third, Ac., arc really pronouns is obvious 

 if we consider that, so far as they go, this, that, and the other would 

 supply their places. The so-called cardinal numbers denote collections ; 

 the ordinal numbers point out only the places of the several units of 

 which a collection is composed. Even one, when its force is simply 

 selective or distinctive, is a pronoun, as in "one or another." 

 [ARITHMETIC; MAGNITUDE; PROPORTION; QUANTITY; UNIT.! 



NUMBERING MACHINES differ from the apparatus described 

 under MACHINES, CALCULATING, in being less complicated, and (for the 

 most part) in performing operations of a leas 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 U necessary to ascertain whether these 

 are of due 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 

 panes down a tube. A system of clockwork within the machine then 

 Mixes the lowest coin of the pile, and places it on a little platform, 

 shaped like a quadrant, suspended over one 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 

 pushei 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 <.tln r. 

 While one coin is being thus weighed, a succeeding one is on its way 

 lie hopper to the platform, and the moment the preceding coin 

 is disposed of, anotln-r supplies its place. Each machine can weigh 

 1 0,000 sovereigns in six hours, separating all which are lower than the 

 standard by a quantity so small as a fraction of a grain. 



These machine*, a* well as Baron Leguier's for separating coins into 

 three group*, according a* they are true, light, or heavy ; and < 

 Smith's, for tenting rupee* at the Calcutta mint perfi inn their working 

 by tenykiny. There is, however, a corn-counting machine nn|il 

 the California mint. The coins are thrown in sufficient quantity on a 

 peculiar kind of tray, and shaken ; they fall into oblong groove*, and 

 all niperfluoiu coins slid* off when the tray is held sloping. In a 

 very few second*, oce layer of coins covers the whole surface of 

 the tray ; and then the number u known to be 1000, neither more nor 

 IMS. 



Very ingenious machine* are now made for combining numbering 

 and dating with printing. Among many other kinds, the remarkable 

 machine for numbering railway tickets was invented by the late Mr. 

 Thoma* Edmoodvon, 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 Edmondson's machine U 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, a* 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 U placed 

 inside a receptacle, which also contains a little form of type 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 

 -, which is instantly pressed down upon one of the blank 

 tickets ; the ticket* are withdrawn one 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 

 to 10,000. Raised numbers are engraved -on the peripheries of two 

 bra** wheels, which revolve at different velocities ; different numbers 

 are presented for inking after each printing, in such a way that a 

 series of ticket* 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. The small upright apparatus on the 

 booking-clerk's counter at a railway-station is the dating-prett. 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 date printed on it ; all he ha* 

 to do else is to change the date-types once a day, and to see occasionally 

 that the ribbon is properly saturated. 



Baranowsky's ticket printing, numbering, and registering machine ; 

 Lewthwaite's machine for numbering railway or pawnbrokers' ticket*, 

 or paging books, or printing any consecutive series of numbers ; the 

 machines invented by Church and Goddard, and by Messrs. Harrild, 

 fi>r printing and numbering railway tickets ; and those invented by 

 Mr. Shaw and Mr. Schlosinger, for paging ledgers and cheque-books 

 are all examples bearing a similarity to Edmondson's sufficiently close 

 to render separate description unnecessary. 



A remarkable process of printing a series of consecutive numbers is 

 described under BANK-NOTE MANUFACTURE. 



There is a great variety of instruments in which number or quantity 

 is indicated by a dial, instead of by printing. Mr. Whiffen's apparatus 

 records the number of times that a certain operation is performed ; it 

 was intended primarily to be applied to the trap-door of a ship's coal- 

 weighing machine, to register the number of times that the door of the 

 shoot has been opened for the discharge of coals ; but a slight modifi- 

 cation will enable it to register the filling of measures of grain, or the 

 number of times that a porter or carrier has crossed a platform with 

 goods ; it comprises toothed-wheels, ratchets, and ratchet-wheels, a dial- 

 plate, and index hands. Walker's operameter registers the amount of 

 work done by certain machines. There is a shaft which may be 

 connected with any one of such machines ; the shaft rotates as fast as 

 the machine, and gives motion to a train of wheelwork, with a dial- 

 face and index hands ; the hands thus become a measure and register 

 of the amount of work done by the machine, so far as that work is 

 denoted by revolutions of machinery. Something similar to this is 

 the apparatus called a counter, often used in cotton factories to count 

 or record the revolutions of particular parts of a machine. Scientific 

 men now moke large use of contrivances which measure and register 

 certain phenomena with which they ore concerned, such as heat, 

 moisture, barometrical pressure, rain, wind, and tides either by au 

 index -hand moving round a dial, or by a pencil marking on a revolving 

 cylinder of paper. Registers of time, space, and speed, are numerous 

 and varied. AH kinds of horological instrument* belong, of course, to 

 the first of these three groups. The odometer measures the length of 

 roads and streets, and records the results on a dial suitably graduated. 

 The pedometer counts and registers the number of steps taken by a 

 person in walking, thereby measuring the distance walked if the step* 

 are equal in length. WhUhaw's rthmntimer is intended to measure 

 the velocity of a railway train, by showing how far an index-hand has 



luring the passage of the train from one mile-post to another. 

 Redicr's koruyrapht is intended to register the rate of speed between 

 two stations, and the exact time at which the train arrive* at each. 

 Carey's measuring machine is a contrivance for recording the number 



lutions made by the wheel of a carriage, as denoted by the slow 



lit of an index-hand. The turnilila at the pay places of 

 bridges and exhibitions show, by an index-hand, the number of times 

 that the stile has been turned to permit a passenger to pass through. 

 Arcra's pendtJe indiciitrur, and many forms of ttU-taU, ore contrivance* 

 which tttrt and register the vigilance of watchmen, guards, police, 

 night porters, &c. : in most such machines, the man is expected to 

 touch a particular part of the apparatus at certain intervals during the 

 night; and if he fail to do this, a dial-face 01- other register tells a 

 tale of his negligence, and of the period of tln> night when the negligence 

 occurred. ]S i ' been 

 proposed for use in omnibuses and cabs, either to measure the distance 

 run, or to register the number of persons who have entered ; in some 

 of these, the passenger, when he enters or leaves the vehicle, steps on 

 one end of a lever or spring, which works all index-hand ; in other*, 



