The covers are now ready to be stamped by the brass die, and that is put in place in the embossing press, seen behind the gilders. It is kept constantly heated, and is attached to the upper part of the press with its face down; the cases are slipped singly into the press, and pressed up against the die, the letters of which stamp the gold into the cloth; the rest of the gold is carefully rubbed off, and collected and preserved. When the edges of the leaves are to be gilded, it is done by holding the books firmly in a vise, as seen in the cut, the gold leaf being laid on with a pallet knife; after which the surface is polished. The workman is seen polishing the edges with an agate burnisher. The sheets having been pasted in their cases, and thoroughly subjected to a powerful press, are packed and put into the trade. [Illustration: Marbling.] Another very curious process is marbling the edges of leaves. In the engraving is a long trough, in which is a thin mixture of water and gum tragacanth, over which the workman holds two dictionaries in his hands. The colors which combine in the marbling are water-colors, and are distributed in the seven jars with brushes. The marbler shakes one of these brushes over the vat, the color falling is held on the surface by the glue, and little circles of blue, or whatever was dropped, are scattered over the water; with another brush he sprinkles in the same way, and so on for any number of colors, producing effects as gorgeous as the mingling colors of autumn leaves or of sunset clouds. If a piece of paper now were dipped into the trough, it would, when removed, be mottled or marbled. The marbling is elongated or streaked by slowly passing a coarse rake through the water. The marbler, taking two books, dips the edges into the trough; the gum causes the colors to adhere to the paper, and the precise pattern in the vat is elegantly painted on the book; the next is dipped in a different place, and when the surface has been taken up, the scum is skimmed off, and the colors again sprinkled on the water, and the process repeated as long as required. [Illustration] [Illustration] XXIV. The Hand-press.--Earl Stanhope’s Press.--Improvements.--Cylinder Presses.--Press-room.--Drying Room.--Sewing Room.--Elevator.-- Books for the Blind.--Type, Press, and Paper invented.-- Catalogue of Great Exhibition.--Estimate of Rapid Labor by Machinery. We have already referred to the earliest modes of taking the impression from the types by friction, or the rubbing of some hard smooth substance over the paper when laid upon the face of the types.