The whole arrangement is self-acting, so that when once the pattern and the rough block of wood have been fixed in their positions, the machine completes the work, and produces an exact repetition of the shape of the pattern. It is plain that any kind of forms can be easily cut by this lathe, the only condition being that the surface of the pattern must not present any re-entering portions which the edge of the guide-wheel cannot follow. The machine is largely used for the purposes named above, and also for the manufacture of the spokes of carriage-wheels. The limits of this article will not permit of a description of the beautiful adjustments given to the mechanism in the example before us, particularly in the arrangement for driving the cutters in a framework combining lateral and longitudinal motions; but the intelligent reader may gather some hints of these by a careful inspection of the figure. The machine is sometimes made with the frame carrying the guide-wheel and cutters, not rocking but sliding in a direction transverse to the axes of the headstocks. It is extremely interesting to see the Blanchard lathe at work, and observe how perfectly and rapidly the curves and form of the patterns seem to grow, as it were, out of the rudely-shaped piece of wood, which, of course, contains a large excess of material, or, in the picturesque and expressive phrase of the workmen, _always gives the machine something to eat_. [Illustration: FIG. 36.—_Vertical Saw._ ] _SAWING MACHINES._