employed in laying or bedding a quantity of cement on the reflecting side of the segment, so as to fill up the angular space between the glass and the iron belt, and also to serve as a seat for the segment in the manner shewn in fig. 110. This operation is performed on a plane surface, in order that the lower part of the mastic may be precisely on a level with the narrow plane already ground on the outer arris of the reflecting side. After being sure that the heat is equally spread over every part of the circular iron belt, the segment is arranged on it; and the workman must, at this juncture, exert all his skill in placing the parts of the segment in a position nearly concentric with the belt, or in a truly circular form, making due allowance, however, for the inequalities existing at various parts of the rough material, and at the same time taking care that there should be an interval of at least two millimètres (or about ¹⁄₁₂th inch) between the ends of each of the two adjacent segments. Without this interval the heat evolved during the polishing would either dilate the glass so much as to cause the ends of the segments to fly into splinters, or make it needful to remove the zone before this should take place, the inevitable consequence of which would be the fracture of the pieces. Those intervals between the segments are filled with statuary’s plaster, which must be carefully washed and brushed at each change of the emery employed in grinding. The exterior diameter of the circular iron belt must be precisely equal to that of the ring, because, if larger, the free movement of the rubbers to and fro on the concave refracting surface AC (fig. 110) could not take place.