The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1905-10-31
WONDERFUL MACHINES.
some That seem TO Re Pretty Near
the Thinking stage.

some That seem to Ee Pretty Near
the Thinking stage.
From the corn mfl,er's bell that sets
up a fussy tinkling the moment the
hopper runs empty Up 20 the calculat-
ing machines that are uew 10 be found
in banks and insurance offices, clearing
houses and obseryatories. there are so
many mechanical substitutes FOR bsain
workers that it is difficult at times
to realize that it is, after ALL only
mechanism and not intelligence that is
being evolved, said an employee at the
patent office to a Star reporter.
"Some of the touches OF what, for
convenience. we may call mechanical
intelligence to be met with in various
odd corners of the industrial and com
mercial world are really quite amusing,
and they hays stheir prototype IN that
little bell Of the Old windmill
There is, for instance, to he seen in
any screw factory a different applica-
ton Of that device. The machinery
takes hold of a rod of metal pulls it
rapidly along. gives the end of it the
general SHAPE of a screw, cuts the
thread round it ana the slot in the head
ard then ships off a perfect screw.
sIf you watch the thing actually
making the screws the idea strikes
you that it is really a piece Of mechan-
ism. but when the machine comes TO
the end of its material ard gives a
sharp impatient ring Of the bell FOR
the attendant TO bring more you can
not help laughing AMI would scarcely
be surprised If, when the man came
with another rod. the busy screw
maker gave him sharp rep-lmand for
inatteni ion and dilatoriness. In those
days Of monographs. of course. it
would be quite practical 10 make it do
so
The machine by which railway tick
cts are printed gives another amusing
little show Of intelligence or what looks
to he very ike it. Railway tickets arc
not. az might be s;lpnoaoC. printed in
large sheets and af.c:Wail CIT Up. The
cardboard is cut into tickets fret. ard
they are printed one by ere 1fterward.
"Tl.c little blank cards are put in 4
pile i'm a kind of perpendicular spout
and the machine slips a bit of metal
underneath the bottom Of the spout
ard pushes out the lowest ticket in
the pile. 10 be printed and consecutively
numbered.
1T is OF no use trying to print a bad
ucSct. Tie machine finds out an I'M
perfect blank in an instant. and fatty
refuses TO have anything to do with
it.
"These are simple instances of a
coed imita Son of watchfulness and dis
crimination-indee the latter looks al
most like conscientious care. They af-
ford q droll suggestion Of the trained
intelligence Of the learned pig or tie
performing dog. ard we may find vari-
Gus degrees Of the same. At the United
States mint they have weighing ma
chimes for coins. to Ehich it is difficult
to deny a very acute intelligence. The
u.int apparatus is more remarkable Of
the two.
The new coins at the minis, how
ever. are sometimes tTlne over
weight. while sometimes, of course,
they are under. so it is necessary TO
sort them out in three categories-light,
heavy and good. This delicate bust
ness is done with unerring precision
BIZ a long row Of wonderfully clever
little machines.
Into these machines single piles Of
shining new coins are put, and quite
automatically the mechanism takes
each coin. puts it into the scale and in
a fraction over two seconds-at the rate
Of twenty-five a minute weighs it. If
the coin is light. the machine shoots
it into its proper receptacle; if heavy,
into another, and if it is Of correct
weight or with q margin, as they call
il. it is pushed into third receptacle. +"
Washington Star.