Several pieces of ashlar were set upon each table and held by dogs and wedges on these bars. They were wedged up very easily by skilled workmen, so that they would finish at the same level. At one side of the ways on which the tables moved, near each end, was placed a swing-crane, which was double- and triple-geared, so that by means of it any stone that the machine was adapted to cut could be lifted by two men. The operations of cutting the stones on one table and removing the stones and setting others on the other table went on simultaneously, so that the cutting was never interrupted, except to change the tools and the tables. This last was done as follows: Each table, when the work on it was completed, was run rapidly backward or forward to attach it to the other table. It was then connected with this by a couple of hooks, and, the motion being reversed, pulled it into place under the tools, and in doing this took its own place under a crane, so that the work of removing the finished stones and setting rough ones went on continuously at one end or the other of the ways. In addition to the machine I designed the building and the whole plant and the plan of its operation, which moved like clockwork. I made every drawing myself. The cranes I obtained in Rochester, N. Y., of a pattern which the builders made for railroads for handling heavy freight. I bought from a stone-dressing company that had failed a rubbing machine called the Jenny Lind rubber, from the fact that it was started the same year in which that songstress was brought to the United States by Mr. Barnum. This rubbing-machine was quite a success. From a central vertical spindle a jointed arm extended in three lengths, each about 12 feet long. The sections of this arm were very deep, so that there was no sag at the end, where the rubbing-plate was driven by belting and could be moved from stone to stone around a circle of 36 feet radius. Half of this circle was sufficient for our use. I made only one change in this machine. The pulleys, two pairs on each joint, one at the top and one at the bottom, about two feet in diameter by three inches face, were of course horizontal. The makers were afraid the belts would fall off; so they made these pulleys with two square grooves, ¹⁄₂ inch wide by ¹⁄₄ inch deep, in their faces, and had corresponding strips of leather sewn on the belts to run in these grooves. I threw all these away and substituted ordinary pulleys with their faces slightly crowning. Never had the least trouble. Indeed, these pulleys did better than I expected. I supposed the belts would need to be taken up occasionally, on account of becoming stretched, but they did not. Perhaps they would have done so if the strain on them had been greater. This rubbing machine resembled the stone-dressing machine in one respect: everything about it was arranged for continuous operation and the largest output.