The speculum was polished on the same system of levers that were afterwards to support it, in order that no change of form might be produced in moving it to a different mounting. The consistency of the pitch is a matter of importance, Mr. Lassell’s test of the requisite hardness being the number of impressions left by a sovereign standing on edge on it; this should leave three complete impressions of the milled edge in one minute at the ordinary temperature of the atmosphere.
FIG. 66.—Mr. Lassell’s polishing machine. ]
Fig. 66 represents the machine contrived by Mr. Lassell for his method of polishing, and shows what a complicated arrangement is essential in order to arrive at any good result in these matters.
The speculum is placed on a bed, and above it is a train of wheels terminating in a crank-pin that gives motion to the polisher, which is made to take a very devious path by the motion of the wheels above. The pin giving motion to the polisher G at its centre can be set at a variable distance from the axis of the lowest pinion F to which it is attached, by moving it in its slide, so that when the pinion is turned, the pin and centre of the polisher describe a circle. The pinion in question is carried on a slide C above it, attached to the main vertical driving shaft A, so that as the shaft revolves the centre of the pinion describes a circle of a diameter variable at pleasure by moving it in the slide C, the result of the two motions being that the centre of the polisher describes circles about a moving centre, and consequently in constantly varying positions on the speculum. Motion is given to the vertical shaft by the cog-wheel and endless screw above, worked by some prime mover, and as the cogwheels on the shaft E parallel to the main shaft are carried round the latter by the arm D holding them, they are caused to revolve by gearing into the fixed wheel B, through the centre of which the main shaft passes, and they in their turn impart motion to the pinion carrying the pin giving motion to the polisher. The speculum is also maintained in slow rotation by the wheel and endless screw below it. The speculum and its supports are surrounded by water contained in a circular trough not shown in the engraving, so that the consistency of the pitch shall be constant.