Franklin Peale Peale designed a new machine to cut planchets, or blanks, from metal strips. This machine remained in use, almost unmodified, until 1902. Another of the steam-powered machines Peale had installed on his return was a milling machine, which was used to "upset" the coin—to form a rim around it. A Contamin portrait lathe was imported from France and installed at the Philadelphia Mint in 1837. Prior to this time, all coin dies for American coins had to be made individually, by hand at Philadelphia. Once the lathe was installed, they could be reproduced mechanically by the pantograph-like device. The first
Metal zipper Metal zipper A metal zipper is a zipper, zip, zip fastener or fly with its binding edges consisting of individual pieces of metal that are molded into shape and set at regular intervals on the zipper tape. Metal zippers are mainly made of brass, nickel and aluminium, and given their durability, they are mostly used in jeans, work-wear, heavy luggage and heavy-duty garments that must withstand high strength and tough washing. The metal zipper is the oldest type of workable zipper, having been invented by Gideon Sundback as an improvement of Whitcomb Judson's "Clasp Locker" that majorly consisted of a