They must have had an old or very small cap machine or still loaded them by hand.
One average machine around 1863 or 64 was producing about 31,000 caps every 10 hours, including all necessary stoppages. The machine punched, formed and loaded and packed the powder in the copper. They were loaded with 1/2 a grain of fulminate of mercury.
Each sheet of copper 48 inches long and 14 wide could produce 2314 caps.
That sheet weighing 3 pounds 2 ounces more or less. 1,000,000 caps took 1300 pounds of sheet copper, of which about 1/3 was returned in scraps.
And One worker could count and varnish 7000 of the produced caps from that machine in an hour.
One average machine around 1863 or 64 was producing about 31,000 caps every 10 hours, including all necessary stoppages. The machine punched, formed and loaded and packed the powder in the copper. They were loaded with 1/2 a grain of fulminate of mercury.
Each sheet of copper 48 inches long and 14 wide could produce 2314 caps.
That sheet weighing 3 pounds 2 ounces more or less. 1,000,000 caps took 1300 pounds of sheet copper, of which about 1/3 was returned in scraps.
And One worker could count and varnish 7000 of the produced caps from that machine in an hour.
