Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1906-07-12
Thursday, July IL, 1906.
ELECTRIC COUNTING MACHINE

Of the many labor-saving devices
introduced into banking and business
methods in recent years certainly not
one of them is more successful in re-
ducing to d minimum the amount OF
work involved than the coin counting
and wrapping machine. Where a
large number of coins have to be
counted and wrapped by hand those
who do the work must be highly skill
cd or there will be numerous errors,
and this is especially true when the
operators become fatigued. The ma
chine was constructed by Edward V.
Wrinkle, an electrical engineer, New
York city, and the speed and accura-
cy with which it counts and wraps
coins is matter of no little surprise
to one who sees it in action for the
first time.
A conception of what the machine
can do can perhaps best be conveyed
by comparing it with hand labor,
The most proficient manuel expert
can count and wrap without error not
more than one package of coins per
minute, while the machine will wrap
from eight to twelve packages per
minute, depending upon the size OF
the coins. 1t is evident, therefore,
that the machine will duplicate the
work of eight or twelve persons, with
the added advantage of absolute ac-
curacy.
The machine, which is driven by
an electric motor, is as nearly auto
matte as human ingenuity can make
it, and its speed is limited only by
the ability of the operator to scrutin-
ize the coins and feed them into a
hopper, and actual working tests have
shown that at least three hundred
coins can be looked over and bad ones
eliminated, every minute by a fairly
rapid operator.
The following will give general
idea of how the money is counted and
then wrapped, not by electricity ex-
actly, but rather bya mechanism drl-
ven by an electric motor.
Flush with the top Of an elongated
hopper is a small table and on this
coins are placed. The operator spreads
them out SO that they may be quickly
observed, individually and collective
ly, and in case there are any mutula-
ted or counterfeit pieces among them
they can be thrown out. This pre-
lminary work accomplished they are
merely pushed into the hopper and
left to the machine to do the rest.
From the hopper they are conducted
by,and through a conduit to recip-
rocating pushbar, and here, regardless
of thickness and diameter, they arc
brought together in row preparatory
to being wrapped. When the num-
Der of coins required to make bun
die, of say twenty half-dollars, are
brought forward the last one registers
the fact, and also sets the wrapping
mechanism, inactive until now, into
operation.
The coins, now counted and bunch
cd, are carried by means of a holder
from the bunchcr to the wrapper, the
holder returning to its first position
into which the coins are deposited
ready for the next package. While
the coins arc thus being carried to the
device which rolls them into packages
the holder picks up and takes with it
the end Of the paper to be used in
wrapping and which has been con-
liently left behind by the package
bped before it. At the same in
with this action the lower coin
s thrown out of its normal posi-
orming in consequence recess
|Set with the two upper rolls,
this the row or bunch Of
Transferred.
FOIL returning to its first posi-
tion, it, with the others, begins to re-
volve and the band of wrapping pa
per is drawn by friction around the
bundle of coins, between it and the
rolls, by the motion OF the latter.
Making two complete revolutions, the
paper is wound tightly around the
coins twice and projecting beyond
them allows enough for the crimp.
When the paper has been wrapped
around the coins a V-shapped knife
sewers it from the roll of paper,
The final process consists of crimp-
ing the edges of the package, and this
is done by turning them inwardly by
the crimpers, these drawing the con-
verging edges of the paper, made by
the knife, in opposite directions, the
result being a clean, smooth and me-
chanically perfect package in which
Modest Claims Often Carry the Most
Convictions.
When Maxim, the famous gun in
ventor, placed his gun before a COM
mittee Of judges, he stated its carrying
l.