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
Billy Blanks saw Bruce Lee on TV, he decided he wanted to be a world martial-arts champion. Blanks was hired as a bodyguard for lead actress Catherine Bach during the filming of 1988's "Driving Force", which was filmed in Manila during a time of political unrest. Blanks impressed the producers and was written into the script in a supporting role. This led to Blanks' work in several martial arts films, including "King of the Kickboxers" and "Bloodfist". Blanks also appeared in the opening scene of Tony Scott's "The Last Boy Scout", where he plays a doomed pro-football player. Blanks played Ashley Judd's