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TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION G. 952 
which engage with suitable pins upon the lever which they are connected to, and 
equidistant from the central pivot. The normal position of the lever is at right- 
angles to the side of the wagon; if the end be either pulled towards or pushed 
from the headstock the brake is applied by means of the slotted pull-rods, the 
Jeyer acting in the first or second order according to the direction in which it is 
moved. The action is the same upon both sides of the wagon. 
This brake has been working for some time past with great success upon the 
London and South-Western, North-Eastern, Great Eastern, and Belfast and 
Northern Counties Railways. It can be applied to present vehicles at small cost, 
as the brake-rigging, such as shafts, hangers, levers, and brake-blocks, can be 
utilised. 
7. A Rotary Machine for Composing and Distributing Printing Type. 
By Joun Souruwarp. 
The author described an apparatus known as the Thorne Combined Type Setting 
and Distributing Machine, one of the main features of which is that the rotary 
principle has been utilised in it with remarkable results. In previous inventions for 
the same purpose there has usually been an apparatus for distributing and one for 
setting the type. It has not been found practicable to construct a distributor which 
will do the work quicker than it is done by hand, and in some cases the saying 
obtained from the mechanical composer is almost entirely lost by the slowness 
of the distribution. Hence the failure of nearly ail the composing-machines 
hitherto invented. 
The two principal features of the new Thorne apparatus are a keyboard 
and two vertical cylinders having the same axis, the upper cylinder resting 
upon a pillar on the lower one. Both cylinders are cut with a number cf 
vertical grooves of such a form as to receive the type which is to be first 
distributed and then reset. There are ninety of these vertical grooves in each 
of the cylinders, sufficient to contain all characters and kinds of characters that 
are wanted for ordinary purposes. The keyboard carries a number of keys 
corresponding to that of the grooves, and when the machine is in operation, what- 
ever key is depressed the letter corresponding to it is ejected from its proper 
groove in the lower cylinder upon a circular and revolving table, which has the 
same axis as the cylinder hut is of larger diameter. Quite a number of types 
may thus be ejected from the grooves in each revolution of the disc, and all 
are brought round in their proper order to a point of delivery, where they are con- 
veyed by a travelling band and fed continuously to a setting stick in front of the 
keyboard and thence to a galley. Here, any ‘justifying’ that may be necessary 
is done by a second operator, who sits opposite a small case containing spaces, 
quads, and so forth. 
The control of the types is effected by forming on the side of each character 
recesses, something like the wards of a key, the arrangement, of course, being 
different for each different character. The grooves in the lower cylinder are pro- 
vided with projections corresponding to these grooves on the types, so that no type 
will fall into any groove other than that for which it is intended. This arrange- 
ment applies only to the lower cylinder, which does not revolve. The grooves 
in the upper or distributing cylinder are large enough to receive all the types 
indifferently that are fed into them. The work of distribution is effected as 
follows: A suitable attachment to the side of the upper cylinder enables the 
operator to place the galley containing the type to be distributed in contact 
with the cylinder, and by a simple device line after line of type is fed into 
the cylinder until, if desired, every groove is nearly filled, and the upper 
cylinder is caused to revolve upon the lower one, with which it is in contact. 
As the columns of mixed type pass over the bends of the shaped grooves of 
the lower cylinder, letter by letter falls into its proper groove as soon as the 
nicks in the types find their corresponding wards. In this way, and at a speed 
depending on the rate at which the revolving table is driven, the types are all 
under perfect control of the compositor. 
