Gilpin observer., 1906-10-11
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MACHINES WHICH THINK.
Things Which Are Accomplished BY
Delicate Mecka niam.


| 1t Is said that when the inventor Of
the typesetting machine first endeavor-
ed to demonstrate the practicability of
his mechanism it was laughed at and
poohpoohed by old printers. "In or
der" said they, ito make a machine
that will set type you must invent a
thing that will think" But the invent
or triumphed, says the Philadelphia
Record, and today the result of his la
Dor is one of the most valuable OF
mechanisms. And each year adds to
the long list of machines that do the
work Of brain workers From the corn
miller's little bell that sets up terri
BILE amount of tinkling the moment the
hopper runs empty up to the compli-
Gated calculating machines seen in ev-
cry bank there are so many mechanic
al substitutes for the brains that it is
really difficult at times for one to real
iZe that after all these machines are
machines and not things of intelli-
gence.
In screw factories one will see a ma
chine that, taking hold of rod of met
al, will pull it rapidly along, giving
Il
screw. cutting the thread around it and
the slot in the head, finally turning out
perfect screw. So far the process
does not strike one as being anything
so very remarkable in this age of Won
derful inventions, but when the ma
chine exhausts its material and emits
sharp, impatient ring of a bell to
summon an attendant to bring more
metal then one does experience an
eerie sensation that the contrivance
really does think.
There is a machine for printing rail-
way tickets that affords an amusing
instance of thinking invention. 1t
is interesting to watch this machine do
its work
The tickets that it turns out are not,
as might be supposed, printed in large
sheets and then cut up. On the contra
ry, the cardboard is first cut into tick
cts, which are printed afterward one
by one.
These small blank cards are inserted
into what might be termed a perpen-
dicular spout, being arranged in pile.
The machine slips piece of metal be-
meath the bottom of the spout and
pushes out the lowest ticket in the pile
to be printed and consecutively num-
bered. There Is no chance to fool the
machine by offering a bad ticket, for
in an instant the mechanism detects
the imperfect blank. with which it ut
terly refuses to have anything to do.
A great many other references might
be made to the thinking" machines
that do their work with so much con-
scientiousness. But to complete the
list it will suffice to notice the remark
able performance of certain machines
used in the Philadelphia mint in con-
nection with the weighing of coins.
The new coins are found sometimes
to be under or over weight. and it be-
comes necessary to sort them under
the classifications of Eight, heavy and
good" This delicate business is done
with unerring precision by long row
of wonderfully clever little machines.
Into these machines are inserted sim
gle piles of bright, new coins. Auto
matically the mechanism takes each
coin, puts it into the scale and in a
fraction over three seconds weighs 1t.
II the coin be slight" the machine
pushes it into its proper receptacle, II
heavy" into another. and II the coin
be of correct weight 1t is pushed into
a third receptacle.