that, while with the graving tool which he holds
in his right, he runs graceful patterns, without
hesitation and without fault. Parallel curves,
and curves that meet, are marked off with a
roundness and steadiness that no mechanism
could surpass. The folded leaf, the pendulous
flower, the wandering tendril, grow under his
touch; and no one of them wanders out of its
place. Near him sits another artist, at work
upon a statuette, fixed in the position he wants
by being stuck in pitch. A row of little
chasing tools is arranged at his side, each
pointed with a different pattern. Here he, by
gentle taps of the hammer on the tool in
hand, makes a rim round the head or arm:
there, by using another tool, he produces
a diced pattern, where shadow is to be represented.
Then, the folds of the drapery are
more finely streaked, and a finish is given to
the bands of hair. Close by is another man,
so intent on his work, that he twists a wire
round his head to keep his hair from falling
over his eyes. He is engaged on a vase filled
with pitch, to preserve the smallest indentations
of the pattern from injury, while he
hammers away, daintily, at the minutest
finishings of the bark of a tree, or the fleece
of a sheep.

Next, we see how the stamped rims, or
other loose parts, are soldered on to the main
body of the work. It is not now as in the
old days, when the spout of a teapot was
liable to come off, or the top of the nozzle of a
candlestick to part company with the cylinder.
Those were the days when the soft tin solder
was used: and the soft solder was used
because the work had to be carried to the
fire; whereas now, the fire is brought to the
work. On stands in the middle of the room
are huge iron pans, like saucers, containing
cinders. At each of these pans or saucers
stands a man, with pincers in one hand,
wherewith he applies the solder, and turns
over the article to be soldered; and, in the
other hand, a flexible tube, by which he
administers air and oxygen gas to the fire
among the cinders. This tube consists of two
compartments, one of which conveys air, and
the other gas; and it is in the power of the
holder to increase the flame to any intensity,
and apply it in any direction, to this side or
that, above, below, and around the most
delicate ornament that has to be united with
any other piece. The white powder that is
thrown on, where the solder has been applied,
is borax, which fuses the solder. One sees
the metal bubbling and running like a liquid;
and when it has diffused itself, and shown by
a white streak that it is done enough, and then
become cool, the join is evidently as lasting as
any other part of the work. Nothing comes
to pieces that is soldered under this blowpipe.

There is, of course, some roughness at these
joins. Formerly, under the old method of
plating, the silver had to be laid on before
such blemishes were removed. A finishing
process was gone through after the plating.
The advantage of electro-plating, in this
respect, is great. The gilding and silvering
are done the last thing. Now, therefore, the
goods are carried from the soldering to receive
such touches from the file, and smoothing
apparatus, as may make all sharp, and polished,
and fit for the final process. When the file
has removed all roughness at the joins, the
whole surface of the article is smoothed and
polished, under the hands of sooty workmen
in paper caps, who apply the surface to swift
revolving cylinders, which administer a polishing
with oil and sand. After being cleansed
in vats containing a ley of caustic potash, the
goods are ready for the final process. The
fumes from a little congregation of vats,
direct the observer to the place where this
cleansing goes on; and he finds them suspended
in the liquor, where they part with
the oil, and every other kind of soil that they
may have brought from the workman's hands.

The visitor may next find himself introduced
to what looks like a dinner-party of
nearly fifty people. A second glance, however,
shows him that the guests are all women,
and that their dress, however neat, is not
precisely suitable to the decorations of the
table. The long table is set out, from end to
end, with epergnes, candelabra, fruit baskets,
cruet frames, bottle stands, and silver dishes;
and between forty and fifty women are employed
in burnishing and finishing, giving
the last polish with the hand, and clearing
out the last speck of dust or dimness which
may lurk in any crease or corner.

As for the gilding and silvering chambers,
they are like seats of magic. One might look
on for a year, and have no idea of the process,
but that it must be done by magic. There is
a machine, containing a great wheel, and large
bands of a horse-shoe shape, which we are
told are magnets. From this machine, loose
wires extend to the troughs, and dangle over
the sides. In the troughs are plates of silver,
standing in a brownish liquor; and in this
liquor hang the articles to be silvered, suspended
by copper wires from thicker copper
wires laid across the top of the troughs.
There hang the teapots, and spoons, and
trays; and nothing ensues till the magician,
in the shape of a man in a dark-blue blouse,
takes hold of one of the dangling wires, and
unites it with the wires on which the goods
are hung. Then, in an instant, they become
overspread with silver. The coating is a mere
film at first, and it requires some hours (from
five to ten, according to the quality of the
article) to obtain a sufficient silvering. The
brownish liquor in the troughs is a solution
of oxide of silver in cyanide of potassium. At
the magnetic touch of the loose wire from the
machine, the silver is deposited upon the
surface of the article communicated with; and
not only laid upon it, but intimately united
with it. Gilding is done more rapidly than
silvering; and the gilding process is therefore