STAMPING.

The stamping is done by means of presses, and is a very rapid and
complete operation.

The operator takes a piece of the sheet copper, places it on the
press, the lever descends, there is a sharp crunching, bursting sound,
and in a time shorter than it has taken to describe, the letter is
made, sharp and perfect in every way.

ENAMELING.

The letters are now taken charge of by a girl, who lays them out on a
wire tray, the hollow side up, and paints them over with a thin
mordant. While they are in this position, and before the mordant
dries, they are taken on the gridiron-like tray to a kind of large
box, which is full of the powdered enamel, and, holding the tray in
her left hand, the girl takes a fine sieve full of the powder and
dusts it over the letter, all superfluous powder falling through the
open wirework and into the bin again, so that there is absolutely no
waste.

[Illustration: DUSTING THE LETTERS BEFORE FIRING.]

FIRING.

The letters are now taken and placed carefully on thin iron disks or
plates on the bench, where they remain until they are fired. It will
be remembered that we said at the outset that the factory was divided
into two large compartments, and it is into the second of these that
we now go.

Here are ranged the series of furnaces which convert the copper and
superincumbent enamel into one common body--fuse the one into the
other. An unwary step soon warns us that we are too near the furnace,
unless we want to run the risk of a premature cremation, and in the
interests of the readers of this journal we step back to a respectful
and proper distance, and watch the operations from afar.

There seems to be something innately picturesque about all furnaces
and those who work about them. Whether it is the Rembrandt effects
produced by the strong light and shade, or whether it is that the
necessary use of the long iron instruments, such as all furnace
workers employ, compels a certain dignity and grace of poise and
action, we know not; but certain it is that the grace is there in a
marked degree, and as we watched the men take their long-handled iron
tongs and place in or lift out the plates of hot metal, we could not
fail to be impressed with the charm of the physical action they
displayed.

The disk containing the enameled letters is taken at the end of a long
iron handle and carefully placed in a dome-shaped muffle. These
muffles are all heated from the outside; that i