The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1877-01-17

take the case of booking clerk at Read
ing. lie has before him a box with a
number OF pigeon-holes, each holding
the tickets for one station. Let us Sc
lect the pigeon-hole for Salisbury.
Before he begins his days work he
knows that the first ticket from Read
ing to Salisbury will be. say, $685. He
has, therefore, issued 30 tickets of this
particular class to Salisbury, and is re-
sponsib]e for 30 fares. He has re-
turn to fill up each day OF the numbers
on the tickets issued, and by seeing
that the last number ON each day and
the first of the next are consecutive,
the officials at the headquarters are
able to have a complete check upon the
station clerks, and to preserve an al
most invariable accuracy in their &C.
counts.
Let us sec how this ticket printing
Is done. First of all, here are boxes
filled with colored pieces of cardboard,
which will soon be printed and made
into tickets. An order has come from
the Southwestern Railway for so many
thousand tickets from, say, Waterloo
to Bishopstoke. The order states color
or colors, the number of the last tick
ct in stock, and the average consump-
ton, which enables the printer to know
when the tickets ordered must be sent
in.
The little steam wrought machine
Tor printing railway tickets is an ex.
ceedingly ingenious piece of mechan-
ism. Imagine table about Is inches
wide by about % inches long, with
long thin box rising above it at
the back and another box falling be.
low it at the front. Thet table contains
the printing rollers and type ;the box
es 1.-THE interior horizontal section of
which is the size of ticket) are
for holding tickets. The upper
box is filed with pile of pieces of
cardboard. One at a time, the lowest
card is jerked by a spring under the
printing machinery and falls into the
lower box, and in less than quarter
of second it is printed and numbered
and stored in the other box. All that
the man has to do is to keep the upper
box filled with cards, remove the low
er box when filled, supply fresh empty
boxes, place the printed tickets in
rows, and see that the ink reservoir is
full. The machine does all the rest,
including the printing. the linking of
the type, and the moving and storing
of the tickets.
The numbering is done by four
wheels, with their centers in hori.
zontal line, thus forming a cylinder.
These wheels have raised numerals on
their edges, which imprint themselves
on the tickets. The wheel which
bears the numerals in the unit s'place
moves so that fresh type is ready for
each successive ticket that in the
| tens place at One-tenth that rate, and
so on.
The next step of counting the tick
cts is a curious one. Though the
greatest care is taken to insure accu-
racy, mistakes will occur in printing
the numbers on the tickets. Some
times number is omitted some
times two tickets are printed with the
same number. To provide against
such casualties they are printed and
counted, and as it is impossible for
human eye and memory and Judgment
to be infallible they are counted by
machinery. This machinery also con-
sists of a table with two boxes as be-
fore. This time the table is simply
table with a hole in it large enough to
allow the number of a ticket to be
seen through. At the side of the
table is a cylinder wheel similar to
that above described.o The number
on the cylinder is adjusted to the same
as that printed on the first ticket to be
counted. The tickets are in consecu-
tive order. AS boy turns a handle
they are jerked from the upper box to
the lower, showing their numbers I'M
der the hole. The cylinder wheel re-
wolves at the same rate, and therefore
the number on each ticket and that on
the wheel ought to agree. If they do
not agree, then is is evident that
number has been omitted or perhaps
duplicated. The deficient ticket being
supplied or the surplus one removed,
the tickets are pressed together by
machinery, tied, packed, and sent to
their destination.
-
Truth Pays.
The other day (says the Detroit Free
PreSs) when 4 resilient of CaSs avenue