Towards the end of The Engineer's Thumb, we learn that the hydraulic press that Victor Hatherley is hired to inspect and suggest a course of repair is actually being used to strikecounterfeit coins. I have always been troubled by the below passage that Arthur Conan Doyle wrote for the story:

This seems outrageously large to me. According to the chronologists, this story takes place in 1889. Now take a look at this video of a steam powered coinage press from the Carson City mint thatwas functioning from 1870 - 1885 and again from 1889 until 1893.

It seems unreasonable that there would be a area large enough to fit three grown men under a piston that could crush them as the story suggests.

Do we have any engineers in our reading audience that could shed some light on this matter?

To read the complete article, see:
Coinage Presses and The Engineer's Thumb(http://fourthgarrideb.com/2017/11/23/coinage-presses-and-the-engineers-thumb/)