“One of the most important securities to the paper currency of nearly the whole commercial world at the present time arises from the invention of transferring engravings, and the work produced by the Geometric Lathe, invented by Mr. ASA SPENCER, while a resident of New London, in the State of Connecticut. The application of this Lathe-work for the security of Bank Notes was first made by Messrs. FAIRMAN, DRAPER & CO., of Philadelphia, in 1816, and from its great beauty and difficulty of imitation, Mr. Spencer was induced to repair to England in 1819, for the purpose of securing the paper currency of that country. As had been expected, this work was put to the severest test which the combined talent of its great metropolis could invent, and having passed this trial in a very satisfactory manner, it was subsequently adopted very generally by the Banks and Bankers of England and Scotland. “The Geometric Lathe differs materially from any other _turning_ engine hitherto invented. The only one which has any similarity in the work produced, is the “Rose Engine;” but that is only capable of copying patterns previously made upon guides, while the Geometric Lathe forms its own patterns, which are all _originals_, and as various and unlimited as the ‘Kaleidoscope.’… “The impossibility of successfully imitating this work by any process of hand-work within the reach of the whole combined talent of counterfeiters will not be doubted when the severe test to which it has been submitted is recollected: and even supposing any combination of counterfeiters to be in possession of the different machines and appendages necessary to effect their object, they would soon find that the time which would be required to learn the use of these implements in secret, could be more profitably employed in any honest occupation.”