With respect to hand-made papers, the sheet is formed by the vatman’s dipping a mould of fine wire-cloth fixed upon a wooden frame, and having what is termed a deckle, to determine the size of the sheet, into a quantity of pulp which has been previously mixed with water to a requisite consistency; when after gently shaking it to and fro in a horizontal position, the fibres become so connected as to form one uniform fabric, while the water drains away. The deckle is then removed from the mould, and the sheet of paper turned off upon a felt, in a pile with many others, a felt intervening between each sheet, and the whole subjected to great pressure, in order to displace the superfluous water; when after being dried and pressed without the felts, the sheets are dipped into a tub of fine animal size, the superfluity of which is again forced out by another pressing; each sheet after being finally dried, undergoing careful examination before it is finished. Specimens 2, 3, 4, and 5, inserted at the end of the work, serve to illustrate the different stages of the manufacture. First, we have what is termed the _water-leaf_, (2) or the condition in which the paper appears after being pressed between the felts—this is the first stage. Next, a sheet from the bulk, as pressed without the felts (3) which still remains in a state unfit for writing on, not having been sized—and is in fact but white blotting paper. Then we have a sheet after sizing, which completely changes its character (4); and lastly one with the beautiful surface, which most of us, in this steel-pen age are capable of appreciating (5). This is produced by placing the sheets separately between very smooth copper plates, and then passing them through rollers, which impart a pressure of from 20 to 30 tons. After only three or four such pressures, it is simply called rolled (5), but if passed through more frequently, the paper acquires a higher surface, and is then called glazed (6). The paper-making machine (see frontispiece) is constructed to imitate in a great measure, and in some respects to improve, the processes used in making paper by hand; but its chief advantages are the increased rapidity with which it accomplishes the manufacture, and the means of producing paper of any size which can practically be required. By the agency of this admirable contrivance, which is so adjusted as to produce the intended effect with unerring precision, a process, which in the old system of paper-making, occupied about three _weeks_, is now performed in as many _minutes_.