r that it can be taken to pieces, so that the soap can
be cut up when cold; the sections or "lifts" are frequently made of the
width of the intended bar of soap.

[Illustration: Barring Gauge.]

Two or three days after the soap has been in the frame, it is cool
enough to cut into slabs of the size of the lifts or sections of the
frame; these slabs are set up edgeways to cool for a day or two more; it
is then barred by means of a wire. The lifts of the frame regulate the
widths of the bars; the gauge regulates their breadth. The density of
the soap being pretty well known, the gauges are made so that the
soap-cutter can cut up the bars either into fours, sixes, or eights;
that is, either into squares of four, six, or eight to the pound weight.
Latterly, various mechanical arrangements have been introduced for
soap-cutting, which in very large establishments, such as those at
Marseilles in France, are great economisers of labor; but in England the
"wire" is still used.

[Illustration: Squaring Gauge.]

[Illustration: Soap Scoop.]

For making tablet shapes the soap is first cut into squares, and is
then put into a mould, and finally under a press--a modification of an
ordinary die or coin press. Balls are cut by hand, with the aid of a
little tool called a "scoop," made of brass or ivory, being, in fact, a
ring-shaped knife. Balls are also made in the press with a mould of
appropriate form. The grotesque form and fruit shape are also obtained
by the press and appropriate moulds. The fruit-shaped soaps, after
leaving the mould, are dipped into melted wax, and are then colored
according to artificial fruit-makers' rules.

[Illustration: Soap Press.]

[Illustration: Moulds.]

The "variegated" colored soaps are produced by adding the various
colors, such as smalt and vermilion, previously mixed with water, to the
soap in a melted state; these colors are but slightly crutched in, hence
the streaky appearance or party color of the soap; this kind is also
termed "marbled" soap.

ALMOND SOAP.

This soap, by some persons "supposed" to be made of "sweet almond oil,"
and by others to be a mystic combination of sweet and bitter almonds, is
in reality constituted thus:--

Finest curd soap, 1 cwt.
" oil soap, 14 lbs.
" marine, 14 lbs.
Otto of almonds, 1-1/2 lb.
" cloves, 1/4 lb.
" caraway,