Page images
PDF
EPUB

successful, and are now in use in the various establishments of the government.

The counting board, in its primitive form, was patented by the administrator of the late R. Tyler, of the New Orleans branch, and the right purchased for use by the mint. The above named coiner was familiar with the original counting machine of Mr. Peale, a model of which is now, or was lately preserved in the mint, made many years previously, which embraces the general principles of the machine.

The counting board was subsequently and to a very marked extent improved by Mr. Peale, and all the fixtures in connexion with it are original with him. The facility and certainty with which it operates have been of incalculable value to the mint. It is only necessary to refer to that period when the passage of the "silver bill" caused a coinage of the smaller denominations of silver money, entirely unprecedented in mint affairs, the whole coinage amounting in 1853 to sixty-nine and three-fourths millions of pieces. Nearly the whole labor of counting this enormous number was performed by two or three females and one man; without the intervention of the counting tables, it would have required the labor of thirty-five or forty experienced counters to have met the exigencies of the service; in one day of twenty-two, out of twenty-four consecutive hours, eight hundred and fourteen thousand pieces were coined and counted, giving a striking illustration of the truth of the above statement.

Without the aid of the fixtures under notice, the enormous labor of the period referred to could not have been performed without a correspondently increased manual force, thereby increasing the expense and liability to error, and augmenting in an equal ratio the liability to another and greater evil, too obvious to need remark.

The balances for weighing the precious metals and other mint operations have received the devoted attention of Mr. Peale from the period of his first connexion with the mint; those of the best construction then known were unsatisfactory, and it was after years of laborious experience and careful study, that he was enabled to perfect them so as to give uniform and certain, as well as delicate results to the weighings, upon the integrity of which all the value of mint operations depends, both as it regards its interior relations and those to the community at large. His efforts in this department have proved that the operations on heavy masses in weight, and of course in value, can, and have been made more accurately than when divided into smaller amounts-a fact that cannot be overestimated when such enormous values are under manipulation; they amounted in the coining department alone, in one year, to ninety-four millions of dollars, in gold only; in the weighing of which, economy of labor was all important, but to which may be added increased security from error.

The balances of the mint thus perfected were not only entirely satisfactory in use, but have served as models of construction; although original in design, and peculiar in detail, their use has been freely given to the mint and the public, a full description having been published by Mr. Peale in the July number of the

Journal of the Franklin Institute of the State of Pennsylvania for the year 1847.

The exigency caused by the influx of gold from California was required to be met; for this purpose Mr. Peale designed and executed, under his superintendence, a steam engine and rolling mill of peculiar construction, adapted to their specific objects. The rolling mill being new in design, dispensing entirely with the expensive gearing usually connected with them, and furnished with wheel work and dial plates for the regulation of the slips of rolled metal, giving greatly increased facility, as well as accuracy, to this important operation.

The engine possesses novelties of form specially adapted to the object of its construction, and has been furnished with a "throttlevalve" of original form, devised by Mr. Peale, to control its speed during the irregularities inherent in the rolling operations; a desideratum that was never before accomplished, although the best mechanicians have long made it their study, and numerous patents have been granted by the office for arrangements whose objects are those above stated.

For the purpose of reducing to its minimum the inevitable "wastage" attendant on the working of the precious metals, Mr. Peale invented an apparatus for filtering and recovering the minute particles usually lost by floating away with the water and other media employed in the washing, cleaning, and whitening of the coin during preparation, and for the purpose of concentrating and recovering the precious metals from the "sweep" of the establishment.

No exact value estimate can be made of this apparatus. It is sufficient to state, as a striking and significant fact, that a trial of it, in an incomplete state, in December, 1851, gave a saving of $271 62 worth of metal, during a period of ten months, from the washing of the hands of the female "adjusters" of coin.

The operations of the year 1852 amounted to $91,297,460 in the chief coiner's department, the legal limit of "wastage" on which was $136,946 19, the actual wastage only $7,246 14. This extremely small ratio of loss may very justly, in a great measure, be attributed to the use of the apparatus referred to, and is cited in evidence of its value to the institution.

CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, 88:

FRANKLIN PEALE.

Sworn and subscribed, before me, April 22, 1856.

JOHN THOMPSON, Alderman.

[blocks in formation]

The Committee on Pensions, to whom was referred the petition of Lemuel Worster, praying for a pension on account of a disability incurred while employed as a waiter to an officer in the service of the United States during the last war with Great Britain, having had the same under consideration, do now report:

That said petition has previously been before Congress, and has formerly received the favorable action of both Houses, but failed by casualty to become a law. At the last Congress the Committee on Pensions made the following report, which your committee adopt, and report a bill for his relief:

"That the petitioner, then but twelve years of age, served in the war of 1812 as a servant to an officer of the militia, under the following circumstances:

"His father, Captain Alexander Worster, now deceased, was in command of a company of militia, and in September, 1814, received orders to march to Kittery Point, in the State of Maine, and join himself to the troops there rendezvousing for the defence of the coast against British invasion. Ten days after effecting a junction of the forces detailed for that service, an order was received from the War Department to organize the companies of one hundred men each. Under this order Captain Worster's company and the companies commanded by Captains Thompson and Ayers were consolidated into two companies, under command of Thompson and Ayers, and Captain Worster was appointed first lieutenant of Captain Thompson's company, and commissioned as such. Under the regulations issued, each commissioned officer of said companies was entitled to, and each appointed, a servant or waiter. They were usually selected from among the enrolled men, and detailed for this duty, under pay and rations; but in this instance the officers exercised their discretion, and selected their attendants outside of the ranks. In this selection no regard was paid to age, provided the person was capable of performing the duty; and Lieutenant Wor

ster appointed his son Lemuel, then twelve years of age, and, in the language of the affidavit of Captain Thompson, accompanying the papers, a smart, active lad, who served as such, and was constantly in the line of his duty, until he was taken sick of camp or spotted fever.' This disease prevailed to a fearful extent in the camp, and petitioner was violently attacked by it, and continued in a critical situation until long after the troops were discharged-his father remaining at Kittery Point in charge of him for a long time after that event. After a slow and painful recovery, it was found that the disease had made sad havoc of the energies and faculties of the petitioner.

"Not only was his health completely broken down, but he had lost the sight of one eye entirely, the faculty of speech was gone, and he was perfectly deaf-all hopes of his usefulness or happiness in life utterly destroyed. In this situation he has lingered to the age of fifty-two years, always a charge upon his friends. Since the death of his father his situation is one of entire dependence upon charity, and the kindness of those indifferent to his comfort and necessities. He prays now that Congress, as an act of charity and justice, would grant him a pension for the remainder of his life. There is, of course, no law providing for the case; but had Lieutenant Worster appointed his servant from the ranks, as it was his privilege to do, instead of requiring the duties of his son, that attendant, if thus disabled, would be provided for in the general statutes; and had the son been an enlisted soldier, there would have been no question in the case. In view of the fact that, although a boy, he was appointed to, entered upon, and discharged the duties that would otherwise have been required of an enrolled soldier, the committee think the case is brought within the intent of the law, and it being a case appealing strongly to the charity of Congress, aside from the question of right, they recommend an act for his relief.

"The evidence accompanying the petition is ample, well authenticated, and most conclusive of the truth of the above facts. A bill is herewith reported."

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES.

APRIL 27, 1858.-Ordered to be printed.

Mr. MALLORY made the following

REPORT

[To accompany Bill S. 295.]

The Committee on Naval Affairs, to whom was referred the petition of David D. Porter, a lieutenant in the navy, have had the same under consideration, and report:

The facts involved in this case are fully set forth in a letter from the Fourth Auditor of the Treasury to the Hon. Secretary of the Navy, communicated to the committee in response to a call upon the department for information, and adopted as a part of this report; it is as follows:

TREASURY DEPARTMENT,

Fourth Auditor's Office, April 20, 1858.

SIR: A letter, addressed to the department by the Hon. S. R. Mallory, chairman of the Committee of the Senate on Naval Affairs, enclosing a petition of Lieutenant David D. Porter, of the United States navy, praying that he may be allowed certain expenses incurred by him some years since while engaged, by order of the department, on secret service in the island of St. Domingo, and which were disallowed by the accounting officers principally upon the ground that they were not chargeable to the ordinary appropriations for the navy, having been referred to this office for a statement of the items thus disallowed, which, in the opinion of this office, are equitably due, and ought to be allowed, I have the honor to report that the sums claimed, but not admitted, were the following:

1. For the entertainment and transportation from place to place, on the island of St. Domingo, of officers of the Dominican government, on board of the United States brig Porpoise, commanded by Lieutenant William E. Hunt, which was placed by the department at the disposal of Lieutenant Porter for assisting him in the performance of the duty upon which he was ordered............ $350

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »