A lead-molding press, built by The F. Wesel Mfg. Co., weighing over thirty-thousand pounds, and developing two thousand tons pressure per square inch on a thirty inch hydraulically operated ram is used in the job-plate department. On this press are duplicated, from the finest screen half-tones, the highest quality electrotypes and nickeltypes to be used in three and four color process printing. The preponderating volume of its business, however, is the production of newspaper electrotypes, and it is in this department that The Rapid Electrotype Company has made distinct improvements in manufacturing practice by methods and machinery designed and constructed by its own engineers in its own machine shop. BLACK LEADING The Rapid Electrotype Company has built a new type of machine for use in this important phase of the electrotyping art. It is a combination Dry-Wet Machine, designed by its own engineering staff. Those familiar with electrotypes well know the superiority of the wet black leading process, especially for half-tones, stipple, Ben Day or fine type, where much of the detail and sharpness is lost in dry black leading, because of the crushing effect the brushes have on the wax mold. In this new type of black leading machine this fault is entirely eliminated, as the brushes never come in contact with the printing face of the mold; they merely polish the high built-up spots, thereby insuring better electrical conductivity to the wax, and a more uniform deposition of the copper shell. Two of these especially designed machines are in constant operation in the ad department, which means the highest grade of advertising plates. DEPOSITING THE SHELL Those who are not technically familiar with electrochemistry are prone to think that the length of time a mold is kept in the electrolytic bath, i. e., the copper bath, determines the thickness of the shell deposited thereon. As a matter of fact, one electrotyper may keep his molds in the copper bath for three hours and get only as thick a shell as another who keeps his in but two hours. The element of time does not determine the thickness nor quality of the shell deposited. The determining factors in this phase of electrotyping are the composition of the electrolytic bath, its temperature, and the current density applied. In addition, the purity of the materials, the cleanliness of the batteries, the perfection of the electrical connections as well as the distance between the anode and the cathode are all matters of importance. These factors are all variables and must be confined between narrow limits. This important phase of manufacture in The Rapid Electrotype Company is under the supervision of an electro-chemical engineer. Plus this fact is the accuracy of mechanical operation in handling wax molds from the time they are put into the batteries until they are taken out with the shell deposited thereon and ready for tinning and backing-up.