Automatic Machinery

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

in its present development, development, may be defined as machinery which carries on complicated operations, often involving several distinct processes or stages of production, without any human intervention or control beyond being started and kept in motion. The term automatic was first popularly applied to such devices as slot machines, etc., which responded in a certain definite way when a coin of a given size was inserted, thus dispensing with the need of human attendance. But such machines are comparatively simple and repeat but a single operation after all, doing this, moreover, in a way not essentially different from that of any other machine except that no hired attendant is required. More truly automatic are the modern coin machines used in making change or in sorting, counting, and wrapping wrapping bags of coins all emptied promiscuously into a hopper, some machines of this kind even throwing out bad" or imperfect coins with remarkable accuracy. On a larger scale, we have the mechanical coal-picker and conveyer by means of which slate and bad coal are thrown out and the various sizes sorted and distributed; while in this same field of handling materials are to be found the weighing machines which weigh out and box in desired amounts such articles as sugar, coffee, etc., fed into hoppers in continuous supply. In the manufacturing field, an increasing number of products which formerly required many separate, skilled operations are now being turned out by single machines with only such attendance as may be needed to keep raw material properly supplied. Well-known instances of complex machines of this kind are found in the tin-can and tinware manufacture, and a recently successful development in another field is seen in the complete cigar-making machine by which over a billion cigars were produced in 1921. Here the only attendants needed are girls to arrange and feed in the raw material. In other cases, a single man to watch that nothing gets out of order is the only attendant required to operate a dozen or more gigantic machines each turning out a finished complex product. Automatic devices for controlling machines in the interest of safety, convenience, or economy are applied to machines of every kind. To direct and vary their operations in accordance with a program arranged beforehand and without any further intervention is the function of so-called kinautograph mechanisms of which a developing type at present is the perforated paper kinautograph. A familiar example of the use of perforated paper to control mechanical action is found in the automatic player-piano. In the same way rolls of paper may be used to guide machines through any desired series of movements, the perforations opening and closing electrical circuits or compressed air mechanisms which operate various levers, etc. A roll once made, with proper perforations, can be used to make a machine repeat any series of movements as often as desired. AUTOMATIC TRAIN-CONTROL OR AUTOMATIC ating trains directly in accordance with STOP, any system of operthe setting of danger signals, without dependence on human intervention. The perfecting of the automatic block signaling system on one hand and of the automatic air-brake on the other leaves but one gap to be filled in order to make the whole safety system automatic, and the Interstate Commerce Commission now requires that some automatic connection be made between danger signals and automatic brakes on all the congested railtems have already been devised, all the roads of the country. A number of sysnewer types being electrically operated. Electro-magnets connected with the trackside signals control the train brakes when the signals are at danger and when the engineer has failed to comply with them. Contacts are effected between engines and signals by means of third approved systems all contacts are disrails or ramps in some cases, but in more pensed with, magnetic induction completing the connections. The automatic stop does not as a rule deprive the engineer of full control so long as the signals are being heeded. In the Sprague system, for instance, the wayside signals are first repeated by lights in the cab, and only when these are not obeyed is the train slowed down or brought to a stop according to the needs of the situation. AUTOSUGGESTION OR SELF-SUG- GESTION, sometimes loosely described as self-hypnotism, the practice upon or within one's self of psychological suggestion (q. v.), commonly with the object of curing physical illness. This theory and its practice were popularized in the in 1922-23 throug United States through the teachings and visit of M. Emile Coué; but it is not new. Self-suggestion forms a part of practically every school of mental healing and its importance has long been recognized and put to use by the medical profession. The suggestibility of human beings is a matter of common observation, while, as for the influence of the mind in disease, its importance is universally admitted, even apart from the well-known fact that much human sickness exists or originates largely or altogether in the mind. Autosuggestion may be conscious or unconscious, direct or indirect, voluntary or involuntary. The whole mental attitude of the individual is at all times affecting his perceptions and beliefs. Thus, a general attitude of hope on one hand or of fear on the other unconsciously suggests its own determination of the value or meaning of any particular occurrence or feeling. As consciously practiced, selfsuggestion is an effort to set the mind in a certain direction, commonly by means of some regularly repeated for- 59 BIOGRAPHICAL CONTINUATIONS mula, used to fix the thought or, in certain conditions, to exert by its monotony an hypnotic influence. There is no pretension that the formula cures diseases. This can only be effected by the patient's self-suggestion , although some external suggestion may be needed to establish right autosuggestions in the first place. The subconscious mind, according to Coué, controls all the fundamental funcand sickness are dependent upon it. It tions of the body , and therefore health in turn may be influenced by the conscious mind, but, above all else, by the imagination. B BELGIUM, 1922. Up to the end of 1922 , Belgium had received from Germany $375,000,000 on account of reparations. M. Theunis, Minister of Finance and Premier since November, 1921, by enforcing a system of strict economy, was able to report that government receipts would practically balance expenditures for 1923. Great progress had been made in industrial restoration. Railroads destroyed by the Germans in the World War had been completely restored at large expense, while such industries as steel, the textiles, and glass were operating up to about 75 per cent of normal. Unemployment had practically disappeared. The League of Nations in July, 1922, formally confirmed the Belgian mandates over Ruanda and Urundi, adjoining the Belgian Congo. The discovery of radium in the latter region was one of the great discoveries of the year. By the terms of a convention which went into effect May 1, 1922, the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg was united for economic purposes with Belgium. (See LUXEMBURG.) BIOGRAPHICAL CONTINUATIONS. ABBAS HILMI PASHA, ex-Khedive of Egypt , excluded from succession to Egyptian throne and deprived of every right in Egypt under a decree of July 18, 1922. His return , however, continued to be agitated by a combination of Zaghloulists and Nationalists. ALLENBY, LORD EDMUND. As British High Commisioner in Egypt, he urged and obtained from the British government (February , 1922) the abolition of the protectorate over Egypt and the recognition of Egypian independence. polar basin scientific expedition which AMUNDSEN, ROALD , leader of a new sailed from Nome , Alaska, June 28, 1922, with the object of making investigations important in meteorology and oceanography. The power schooner "Maud" was fully equipped with the most modern radio apparatus to enable communi-- cations to be made with the world, and two airplanes were also included in the outfit. S. Senator from Arizona, November, 1922. ASHURST, HENRY F., again elected U. World War, he was attached to the