18S 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[JUNH, 



cutters arranged in a circle, each cutter being lifted by a lever tong attached 

 to a vertical tly-w!ieel. Upon the lower tool the ribbon is placed, and a suc- 

 cession of pieces is punched out of it constituting the blanks. In general a 

 row of blanks is cut out, and the blanks as they are cut fall through the 

 lower tool into a drawer placed underneath in order to receive them. Ima- 

 gine here again the extreme nicety of these cutters; they must be so ad- 

 justed as to cut out exactly tlie proper weigh. Supposing that the bar or 

 fillet which is to be cut into sovereigns is exactly standard, it goes through a 

 particular cutter which will cut it standard ; but, suppose that in testing this 

 way it should be found a shade too light, it then goes to a cutter which will 

 cut them a shade too heavy or rather compensate for that lightness. There 

 arc, in fact, a number of cutters of this kind, each varying a mere idea, or 

 more thought, but still producing a very important result. 



The blanks are next carried to the sizing-room, where persons are em- 

 ployed to weigh each individual piece: these are weighed a second time in 

 order that they may all be exactly standard. Not only are they weighed 

 twice, but each piece is sounded or chinked, in order that no split, cracked, 

 or " dumb pieces," as they are called, may be put into circulation. The 

 standard weight of a sovereign is 5 dwts. 3} grains ; the current, or that at 

 which it circulates, 5 dwts. 21 grains. So that thee.'ctreme diflijrence between 

 the two — the standard and current sovereign — may be in value about three 

 lialfpence, a grain of standard gold being worth Ebout twopence. Upon eight 

 light sovereigns, therefore, the loss will amount to one shilling ; upon 800, 

 5/.; and on 10,000,000 sovereigns the loss would be about 62,000/. sterling, in 

 this slight shade of difierence. The discs, or blanks, as they are called, hav- 

 ing been thus adjusted as to size, are marked, as it is called ; that is, they go 

 through a pair of steel cheeks, and the edges are a little raised up. There 

 are here some blanks which have been marked, and others which came from 

 the cutter direct. Those from the cutter are rather rough at the edge, those, 

 which have been marked have been a smooth edge ; an edge a little raised. 

 The marking-machine is one of extreme rapidity ; it will operate upon about 

 240 pieces in a minute. The blanks in Ibis mark have now become so hard 

 that It is necessary, before they are struck or coined, to anneal them. The 

 annealing is done by packing them in iron cases, and in which there are about 

 2.800 blanks packed in each case, carefully sealed up, put into a furnace, 

 where they are heated. They are then allowed to cool slowly, are opened, 

 and are thrown into a very weak solution of sulphuric acid, by which they 

 are '• blanched," as it is called ; that is, the little film or oxidization of cop- 

 per is taken from the surface and they become clean, and the blanes are then 

 fit for the operation of stamping. There are at the Mint eight coining- 

 presses, working by a most ingenious and beautifully-formed machine, con- 

 trived by the late Mr. Bolton, in which the blow is performed by a piston 

 falling in vacuo. The fall of the piston is in vacuo, then i t pulls the press and 

 strikes the blow. There are eight presses, each coining from 30,000 to 40,000 

 pieces a day ; that is, each coining from 60 to 70 pieces a minute. The lower 

 die, on which the reverse of the coin is engraved, is placed in the press in a 

 particular position, and the collar, exactly fitting it, works up and down upon 

 this blank die. Now, that collar has a milling engraved in it, and at the 

 moment the blow is struck the collar is elevated, and the piece, which other- 

 wise would spread, meeting with the collar, takes the impression of the rim 

 from it, and so becomes milled. Then, after that operation, the collar is 

 pushed down, and the pieces forced off. This is done by a part of the press 

 technically called " the layer-on." Each time the press comes down, this, 

 which is the upper die, falls on the piece and keeps it. While the press is in 

 the act of rising this layer-on puts another blank, in order to receive the blow 

 immediately afterwards. Here is a lube containing blanks, and by means of 

 this instrument, called the layer-on, a sort of forceps, or finger and thumb, is 

 »o contrived as to take a blank, put it on the die, and return for another 

 blank. Formerly all this was done by hand, and the finger and thumb were 

 liable to a great many accidents. The operation of the press then is this : 

 there is a blank brought fonvard and put on the die by the layer-on, it goes 

 hack, the piece which is to be coined is struck, the press is elevated, and an- 

 other is brought on. The average consumption of dies in the Mint amounts 

 on an average to a pair of dies to each 50,000 or 60,000 pieces. It must be re- 

 membered that in these coining-presses at the Mint one blow must complete the 

 coin, so that the skill of the engraver is called into requisition, and shown by 

 the art with which he makes a low relief susceptible ot being perfectly brought 

 up by one blow of the coining-prcss. lie makes the tool produce a goodeii'cct, 

 tnd by which he avoids those prominences and asperities in the coin which 

 would tend toils wearand debasement. Nothing can be worse than ahigh relief 

 n a coin ; it accelerates its degradation by wear, and never can be perfectly 

 trought up from the very nature of the coining machinery. In these re- 

 spects, therefore, the engraver is tied down by tlie power of the machinery or 

 press. lie is very often blamed for what, in fact, is his great merit. There 

 is no difllculty whatever, by a suceussion of blows in rapidity, in bringing up 

 a very high relief, like that of medals, for instance, in proof pieces; but when 

 one blow of a certain power, repeated from sixty to seventy times a minute, 

 » required, and each time to produce a certain coin, then it is that the talent 

 d skill of the engraver are more severely taxed. 



The monies being finished they are now weighed up in what are called 

 '' journey weiglits," being 15 lb. of gold or 60 lb. of silver. These are neighed 

 up in bags and returned by the Company of Moneyers to the Mint-ofTice. 

 But before the money is delivered finally to the importers, and through them 

 to tlie public, it is subject to a series of examinations, called " a check," to 

 ascertain its weight and fineness, or, as it is said, it is ■' pixed." 



In concluding this subject one observation must be made. In regard to 

 the work of the Mint, one often hears it said, " Your money is very well, but 

 it ought to be in higher relief; more perfect workmanship, more lime be- 

 stowed upon it. It is very well to talk about coining 40,000 pieces at each 

 press every day, but it is a bad thing to do for the arts." This, however, is 

 certainly not the case. It is of the utmost importance that the coin shouM 

 be as quickly produced as is compatible witli good workmansliip ; and the 

 workmanship of our Mint will stand comparison w ilh that of any in the world 

 as far as it is compatible with perfect accuracy of weight and fineness; be- 

 cause you may imagine that all the checks I have stated take up, of neces- 

 sity a great deal of time. Then, again, you will remember that as regards 

 the loss of interest of any bullion during its passage Ihrongh the Mint, that 

 is a very serious consideration. And, lastly, in the event of any panic, as 

 in 1825.— At that time bullion came in from the Bank on the Saturday, and 

 140,000 sovereigns were returned on the Tuesday succeeding, to the Bank, 

 and the same number every day till the following .Saturday, when confidence 

 was restored, the draught on the Bank began to be diminished, and the 

 threatened cris's was averted. The gold ingots came in from the Bank at 

 nine in the morning, and at ten at nightj 47,000 were coined and finished. 

 Here you see the extent and perfection, the good management and machinery 

 of the Mint, which achieves this; achieves it with some difficulty, but very 

 accurately. 



As to the capability of the Mint, it has been stated what number of pieces 

 the presses will produce. In seven days' work in gold, in the year 1842 : the 

 weight of gold bars in work during that week amounted to lOlons. The coin 

 worked weighed 12,085 lb. ; they were 985,435. From the 1st of July, 1842, 

 to 1st of July, 1844, there were coined in the Mint, of sovereigns and half- 

 sovereigns, 15.920,411 pieces; silver coins, 20,976,000: copper coins, 

 19,621,956 ; making in the whole 56,528,367 pieces. Since that period, that 

 is, from the 1st of July, 1844, to the 31st of December last, there have been 

 coined besides 10,000,000 sovereigns ; so that, in that jieriod of two years and 

 a half, there was turned out of the Mint 66,528,367 pieces, which, as far as 

 gold and silver are concerned, had undergnne all those ordeals. 



The grand trial of the pix is performed by a jury of goldsmiths. To those 

 persons are handed over the pix-bags from time to time, which are taken 

 with great ceremony to Westminster, where the Lord Chancellor empannelsa 

 jury, or, at least, instructs one, as to their examination ; they then adjourn 

 to Goldsmiths' Hall, and examine the wdiole mass of coin or sample to be 

 fairly taken, and, if it pass, they ultimately report upon it, and from that 

 report the Master of the Mint is exonerated from all further charge and re- 

 sponsibility respecting the coin. 



A DESCRIPTION OP A CATHEDRAL OF THE ORIENTAL CHURCH 

 (Abridged from the Ecclcsiohgist.J 



We propose in the present paper to prove, that, difTering very widely in 

 many less important arrangements from tlie Western Church, the Kasterii 

 Church has retained, and even amplified, their essential features. And to this 

 end we shall endeavour to give a brief and familiar account of a Greek cathe- 

 dral. The monastic churches differ from those of the seculars in many res- 

 pects : not therefore to perplex the reader, we shall confine ourselves almost 

 entirely to the latter. 



The church in question then, would consist, strictly speaking, of four parts ! 

 the altar-space (hagion hema, hiepatcion, or licikel, as it is termed in the 

 Coptick Church) ; the choir; the nave; and the porch or narthex, at the 

 west end. The aisles of the nave extend both to the east and west ends; and 

 in the former terminate Cas does the altar-space itself; aspidally. 



Commencing with the east end, we should find that the altar stood in the 

 centre of the chord of the middle apse : in the same position therefore which 

 in churches of this description was allotted to it in the Western Church. It 

 was overhung by a dome or canopy, supported on four pillars, and sur- 

 mounted by a cross. This canopy, often called the Trullus, is also known by 

 the name oi cihorium, and also concha, from its similarity to a shell. At the 

 tops of the pillars, also called towers, lilies were worked, and the names of 

 the Evangelists sometimes were engraved on the columns, as we learn from 

 Simeon of Thessalonica, the Durandus of the Eastern iChurch. Veils were 

 suspended between these columns, sometimes richly adorned with gold and 

 purple (P.aul. Diac. Mich. 1. x.\iv.). but this arrangement is now much dis- 

 used. The Blessed Sacrament is not reserved in a silver dove or tower, but 

 laid by in a place appropriated (ot that use, and situated behind th« altat ; i' 



