A WONDERFUL MACHINE.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1904, 15 June 1892, Page 6

A WONDERFUL MACHINE.

Not the least marvellous of the many ingenious automatic machines of the present day is one for turning out the small sorews and parts of a watch. The ' Horologloal Review ' says of it : — " Some of the sorews are so small that the thread and slot for the screw-driver cannot be seen by the naked eye. It takes about 200,000 of these little screws made by the automatic machines to make a pound, and yet they are perfect in shape. They are made thus : Tbe wire is fed in the machine automatically through a swiftly revolving spindle, and is gripped by a chuck. Instantly a circular cutter comes into place and turns down the screw part. While the turning is being done a threading die is operating, and the instant the cutter is through with its part; the die turns around on the turned part and screws on and off like a flash, cutting the thread. At once a steel arm is seen to swing over, and just as the screw is being cut off from the wire it is picked up by steel fingers and carried over to a spot where a saw is swiftly running. The slot is then cut, and another motion of the arm and fingers releases the screw,* which is carried by a stream of oil into a sieve among thousands of screws just like it. That part of the mechanism which grips the screw is called ' arm and finger,' and the term seems appropriate, because the motions accurately resemble those of a human arm and hand. The arm has an uncanny look as it works with ceaseless regularity. The operation goeß on constantly and tirelessly for ten hours per day, and when night comes each machine has made 10,000 of the tiny screws. One 'motion follows another so quickly that a novice is filled with wonder and amazement. Oil is forced in tiny streams with great, pressure upon the cutting parts, and then runs off through a drip, to be again pumped and forced to the machines."