72 Automatic Weighing at the Royal Mint. 



Ill Dentalium, Lam ell aria, Murex, Purpura, 



Nassa, Buccinum, Fusus. 

 3 13 Calyptrasidas, Paludinidas, Litorinidas, 



Aporrhais, Natica, Velutina, Tricho- 

 tropis, Cyprea, Ovula, Cyclostoma. 

 3 3 Acmasa. 



10 1 Mangelia, Philine (Cylichna?), Bulla, Go- 



niodoris. 

 oo oo Scalaria, Doris. 



10 Eolis. 



oo 1 oo Many of the section In-operculata. 



5 1 1 1 5 Chiton. 

 3 3 3 3 Patella. 



oo 5 1 5 oo Fissurella, Haliotis, Trochus. 

 oo 6 1 6 oo Trochus (Margarita) helicinus. 

 oo 4 1 4 oo Emarginula. 

 oo 3 1 3 oo Neritina. 



AUTOMATIC WEIGHING OF GOLD AND SILVER 

 PLANCHETS AT THE ROYAL MINT. 



BY JOSEPH NEWTON.. 

 ( With an Illustration.) 



The marvellous progress which has been made in mechanical 

 science in this country during the last half century is nowhere 

 more practically demonstrated than in the new weighing-room of 

 the Royal Mint. That handsomely-appointed apartment of the 

 money-making establishment contains twelve small machines, 

 each one the counterpart of its neighbour, and which, for 

 delicacy of finish and beauty of minute constructive detail, 

 may be said to equal, if not to excel, any mechanical apparatus 

 owing its existence to the conception and the fingers of man. 

 They appear, indeed, when in motion to be gifted with intelli- 

 gence, and they certainly constitute the nearest approach to 

 thinking machines that have as yet been contrived. 



The task of the automatic weighing-machines of the Mint, is, 

 to receive each individual planchet or disc of the precious metal 

 produced by the laminating mills and cutting-out presses, and 

 to answer the question as fco whether or not those planchcts are 

 ofth" legal weight, which qualifies them for conversion into 

 Current coins of the realm. This highly important duty tho 

 automatons perform with a degree of speed, regularity, and 

 accuracy impossible of achievement by direct human agency. 

 No matter what the extent of skill, care, and aptitude the mani- 



