The object is fixed to the machine by a pneumatic chuck. It consists of an iron tube, which passes through an aperture on the upper joint of the guiding-frame, into which is screwed a round piece of gun-metal, slightly hollowed in the centre, but flat towards the edge. This gun-metal disc is perforated by a small hole communicating with the interior of the iron tube. This aperture permits the air between the glass plate and the chuck to be exhausted by a small air-syringe at the other end. The face of this chuck is covered with a thin film of soft india-rubber not vulcanised, also perforated with a small central aperture. When the chuck is properly adjusted, and the india-rubber carefully stretched over the face of the gun-metal, one or two pulls of the syringe-piston is quite sufficient to maintain a very large object under the action of the slitting-plate. By this method no time is lost; the adhesion is made instantaneously, and as quickly broken by opening a small screw, to admit air between the glass plate and the chuck, when the object is immediately released. Care must be taken, in stretching the india-rubber over the face of the chuck, to make it very equal in its distribution, and as thin as is consistent with strength. When this material is obtained from the shops, it presents a series of slight grooves, and is rather hard for our purpose. It ought, therefore, to be slightly heated, which renders it soft and pliant, and in this state should now be stretched over the chuck, and a piece of soft copper wire tied round it, a slight groove being cut in the periphery of the chuck to detain the wire in its place. When by use the surface of the india-rubber becomes flat, smooth, and free from the grooves which at first mar its usefulness, a specimen may be slit of many square inches, without resort being had to another exhaustion by the syringe. But when a large, hard, siliceous object has to be slit, it is well for the sake of safety to try the syringe piston, and observe if it returns forcibly to the bottom of the cylinder, which evidences the good condition of the vacuum of the chuck. After the operation of slitting, the plate must be removed from the spindle of the lathe, and the flat lead _lap_ substituted. The pneumatic chuck is now to be reversed, and the specimen placed in contact with the grinder. By giving a slightly tortuous motion to the specimen, that is, using the motion of the various joints, the object is ground perfectly flat when the length of both arms of the joints is perfectly equal. Should the leg of the first joint on the right-hand side be the longer, the specimen will be ground hollow; if shorter, it will be ground convex. But if, as before stated, they are of equal length, a perfectly parallel surface will be obtained.