The mahogany being supplied in slabs of the requisite thickness, these were first cut up by circular saws into pieces of a square section, and the angles of these were then bevelled off by the same means; the lengths were afterwards transferred to the hand-rail cutting machine to be rounded. [Illustration: THE HAND-RAIL CUTTING MACHINE.] [Illustration: PART OF HAND-RAIL MACHINE.] The principal portion of the machine consists of a hollow cast-iron cylinder, round which a strap may be passed to drive it. At one end of this cylinder four cutters are fixed, so that a piece of wood passing between them and through the cylinder, as it revolves, is rounded off to a true circular form of section, and is turned out so smoothly finished as to require scarcely any further work upon it before fixing. In advance of the cutters pressure-rollers are placed, furnished with teeth; and these, as they are turned round by a cranked handle, seize upon a piece of mahogany and force it forward against the cutters, which form, as it were, the jaws of the hollow cylinder, which thus seems to be constantly swallowing lengths of rough mahogany, which escape from it finished. The wooden rail is passed up to the cutters along a groove, the end of which is shown in the small engraving; and opposite each end of the revolving cylinder springs are fixed, which prevent the rail from shifting its position. The hand-rail was all turned out in 21-feet lengths, of which about thirty were completed in the day. General View of the Works.