Automatic Weighing at the Royal Mint. 83 



that power must not be tampered with. Balances must not 

 be hurried in their movements. It is said that those who 

 think twice before they speak once, will speak twice the 

 better for it; but certainly the balance which is allowed 

 due time for acting will yield far more truthful results 

 than that which is not. One of the great principles of the 

 automaton, therefore, is deliberation, the other, regularity of 

 motion. Let us now proceed to show how mechanical arrange- 

 ments give practical force to both principles. 



We will imagine that a large number — say 10,000 ounces 

 weight, for example — of sovereign planchets have reached the 

 weighing-room. They are first weighed in bulk, because it is 

 necessary that a check should exist upon the few workpeople 

 who are to be entrusted with the task of feeding the automatons, 

 and then commences their distribution among the machines, 

 each of which is supplied with a brass spout, twenty inches 

 long, and placed at an angle. In these spouts roleaux of plan- 

 chets are carefully deposited, the lowest planchet in each case 

 resting on the top of the machine, and the others supported in 

 regular order, planchet upon planchet, above it. Now, there- 

 fore, all is ready for action, and the automatons simply require 

 that a small coupling upon each of their main spindles shall, by 

 the pressure of the thumb and finger of an attendant, be made 

 to revolve with the loose pulleys upon them. Possibly it may 

 simplify and render more intelligible our description if we 

 single out one balance for illustration ; and here it may be also 

 said that the whole theory of the automatic weighing machines 

 depends upon the fact that the centre of gravity and the centre 

 of action of its beam are in one line, or on one level. Either 

 centre being disturbed, the balance will be no longer equal. 

 The beam, which is of well-tempered steel, is 8 - 90 inches in 

 length, and weighs 288*41 Troy grains. Its knife edges find 

 their own resting-places upon curved loops of steel beneath 

 them, and as the points of contact are small, the friction is 

 minimized. The beam is supported immediately below the 

 feeding-spout or hopper, and is preserved from dust by being 

 covered with a brass plate. Above the upper part of one end 

 of the beam — that immediately in advance of the foot of the 

 hopper — is seen a flat disc of polished steel, slightly larger in 

 diameter than a sovereign planchet. This is in fact the scalo- 

 pan, and it forms the upper part of a fine steel rod, delicately 

 poised, and readily moved by, or moving the beam. Above 

 the opposite end of the beam depends another steel rod, 

 and this, finishing with a cage at the base of tho machine, 

 carries a glass counterpoise of tho minimum legal weight 

 of a sovereign. Below tho cage, but not attached to it, is 

 a " stirrup," in which rests a pieco of platinum wire of tho 



vol. v. — NO. II. H 



