310 APPENDIX. [No. XXII. 



machine by Hopkinson and Cope was adopted, and the cheques were 

 printed by it, as also some of the notes. 



For the other bank-note a new platten has been specially constructed 

 by Messrs. Napier and Son, with contrivances for both the tables and the 

 inking rollers to traverse, by which means an effect is produced equivalent 

 to rolling with a single hand- roller twenty different times. In this machine 

 a plan of great value is employed, as the form of every note is made to 

 one gauge, and every denomination has its separate tyrnpan and over- 

 laying. By these means, when a note-plate is once made ready for 

 press with its overlaying, it is always ready at a moment's notice without 

 further preparation for taking impressions. This appears to be a contri- 

 vance which has added additional power to the system which, under the 

 circumstances, well meets the requirements of the Bank. 



Counting machines are appended to each end of the machine, that no 

 impression can be taken without being registered ; and when 100 impres- 

 sions are printed, a bell strikes to call attention to the fact. In Napier's 

 machines 3,000 notes are printed per hour, and two boys are required to 

 feed with paper, and two to take off the printed notes. 



After the note is printed, as a part of the system, it was proposed that 

 it should be numbered and dated at the ordinary machines, instead of the 

 Bramah's machine heretofore employed. These machines are also double, 

 requiring two boys to feed and two to take off. By this working the note 

 is completed, and handed over to the cashier to be examined and counted. 

 By this part of the system, the note is decidedly superior to that of the 

 old ; the printing by the new process being very much improved as a mere 

 question of printing. 



Curiously enough, the numbering apparatus originally invented by 

 Bramah has been adapted, with the necessary modification, for the Napier's 

 gripper machine, with an improved inking apparatus. 



When the forme is arranged in the printing machines, the first act of 

 the printer is to obtain a perfectly level impression, equal in tint at every 

 part, which is accomplished by filing the back of the blocks wherever he 

 finds any elevation exists. This may be called a general picture, which 

 possesses the general appearance, but without the lights and shades which 

 give beauty and excellence to the impression. When the general picture 

 is obtained to the parties' satisfaction, four impressions are taken upon 

 thin paper, and, according to the gradations of tint required, the impression 

 is cut away, so that in one place no thickness exists ; in others one, two, 

 three, or all the thicknesses remain. For the darkest portion the four 

 thicknesses are left, for the lighter none are allowed, and for the inter- 

 mediate tints two or three thicknesses are left. The whole are then pasted 

 together and placed over the electrotypes, and, by the contrivance of the 

 overlaying, those parts which are desired to be darkest get the heaviest 

 pinch, those parts required to be of a lighter tint are the least heavily 

 pressed, and in this way the impression is in a great measure brought 

 to perfection 



Upon the trial of this overlaying little alterations are made, to bring 

 it to the utmost uniformity. In this part of the process much depends 

 upon the skill of the superintendent of the printing department, who has 

 the final examination, and when he is satisfied the printing is allowed 

 to commence. 



