The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-07-18
HOW SILVER Is COUNTED.
And Bagged in the United States Mint
at Philadelphia.
From the Cincinnati Enquirer.

thC 1Au4uAkOAs
Philadelphia, July For weeks the
counting of $4,000 600 silver dollars in the
Philadelphia mint has been dragging
slowly along, and no one expected to see
the count completed inside of three years
until a few weeks ago, when Sebastian
Helm chief carpenter of the mint, iu-
vented a machine which makes it posi-
bic to complete the work within three
months With the aid of this wonderful
piece of mechanism 1000 silver dollars
can be counted and placed in a bag ready
to receive the seal of the treasury Off
Gals within the remarkably short time of
| nine seconds.
When DIR. Eugene Townsend was APP
! pointed superintendent of the mint TO
| succeed Col. o. T. Bosbyshell, 1t became
! necessary to take stock of all the coin
/ and bullion stored in the vaults. A large
force was put to work on the silver dol
lars. The fastest men could count only a
/ few thousand in a day, and the officials
saw before them long and tedious task
| 1t was then that Chief Carpenter Helm
was consulted Mr.. Helm is always con
suited when things do not go just exactly
right at the mint. He was asked If he
could not devise some more expeditions
method of counting the coin. He could
| try.
Two or three days later he completed
| thousand coins could be counted much
faster than by the old method. But part
| of the money has been stored in the
vault for years and has grown moldy and
covered with dirt. which so encrusts
some Of the coins as to make them nearly
| twice their natural thickness. This was
| a greatimpedient to the use of the count
| ing board, and the problem of greater
haste was still unsolved.
Director of the Mint Preston and As
| sistant Director Morgan came up from
| Washington to see how the work was
| progressing. They were dismayed at the
| slow progress made. and appealed to Mr.
Helm TO help them out of their dilemma
| Then the chief carpenter set to work
Night and day he cudgeled his brain for
some improvement over the old system.
| Finally he hit upon plan. His idea was
TO count the coin by means of machine.
In three weeks he had his machine made,
perfected and in operation.
1t is very simple affair. 1t cosists of
table rs inches long and SO inches wide,
| standing 2 feet and inches from the
floor On this table are fastened strips
of wood one and niue-sixteenths inches
| apart, running the entire length. These
| strips make slides just large enough to
allow silver dollar lying fat on the table
| to pass through them. There are 20 of
these slides. Each slide will hold just so
|
coins long and 20 coins wide. When all
the slides are full there are 900 coins on
the table.
Attached TO one end of the table is
large hopper. Each one of the sides is
connected with this hopper by vertical
brass tube 6 inches long, GIG inches in
| diameter. This is lie of an inch more
than the diameter of silver dollar and
allows a coin to pass through it freely.
The coins are poured into the hopper by
the bushel, tall into the tubes and drop to
the slides on the table. All that is needed
then is force to push them through the
slides to the other end of the table.
This is furnished by a number of
wheels on an axle, which runs under the
table its entire width. There is a wheel
for each slide. and each wheel has in its
circumference number of sharp hicks,
resembling very much those in a circular
saw. These hicks strike the edge of the
dollar nearest the tube and force it on.
This force pushes on the coins ahead and
they are driven to the other end of the
table. When the table is filled a strip is
placed across it, dividing that 1000 coins
from the ones that follow. This strip
moves along to the end of the table, push
ing before it all the coins in 1000 lots.
The coins fall into a bin-shaped recep-
tacle and from these into bag.
When the travelling strip reaches the
| emu OF Jue. JdDte l,OOO coins nave DeSu
| counted and another thousand is lying
upon the board. 1t takes another thou
sand to push this lot into its bag and so
on. There is scarcely any limit to the
capacity of the machine. AS fast as the
hopper can be filled the coins can be
counted The chief difficulty now is TO
keep the hopper filled. The little wheels
under the table are now worked by
crank which a workman turns, but steam
or electricity ran easily he substituted
for man power. If this were done the count
could be made even faster. Three men
can operate the machine, aside from those
needed TO keep the hopper filled. If
speed is no consideration, one man can do
the whole thing.
Assistant Director Morgan, who has
seen the machine in operation, declared
that it is perfect, and that as labor
saver its value cannot be estimated. This
first machine was more or less of an ex-
pertinent but it has been found to be such
an excellent thing that Mr.. Klein is now
hard at work upon another one, which
will be completed within two weeks. A
nun Der of improvements will be made in
the second machine which will make it
even better that the first.
Mr.. Helm does not intend mis- invention
for use in minis exclusively. There would
be limited market for it If he did. He
contemplates build ing these machines for
banks, railroad companies and other con-
Germs which handles large sums of money.
He will make each machine so that coins
of all denominations may be counted out
in lots of 10, 20, 80 or 100 and dropped
into paper tubes, which may be marked
with the sums they contain and piled
away ready for use. This will expedite
such work for banks particularly.
BOY RULERS.