The _third plate_ depicts the preparation of the lead. The workmen to the left in the background are forming a plastic mass of the composition by wetting it with water, which while still wet is passed into the cylinder of the press where it is forced through a copper plate, at the bottom of the cylinder, in the centre of which there is an opening of a peculiar shape. As is seen in the representation the lead thus pressed through the cylinder assumes the shape of a ring and is then carried by the workmen on the right upon boards and lying in a straight position, to a moderately warm place to dry. Before however the lead is completely dry, it is cut into sticks of the proper length for filling the pencils. After the drying comes the annealing in peculiarly constructed ovens. This process takes place in hermetically closed vessels of clay or iron in which the sticks of lead are placed in a horizontal position. In the _fourth plate_ the method of cutting, sawing and planing the wood is seen. In the foreground to the right lies a balk of Florida Cedar wood. These balks are from 10 to 15 feet in length and 8 to 24 inches in thickness. They are first cut across with an upright saw in pieces of the length of a pencil, which pieces are then cut into sticks by small circular saws as shown on the right hand side of the view, the sticks being thereupon planed smooth by the machine in front. Behind the planing machine the grooving machines are situated by means of which the smoothly planed sticks are cut with fine circular saws into top and bottom pieces, the latter of which are furnished with grooves. The _fifth plate_ represents the process of glueing the sticks of lead into the wood. At each glueing table there are three workmen, one of whom smears the two pieces of wood with glue, while the second places the lead in the groove and the third, after the two pieces are fixed together, trims the pencils, which are then placed in a press and firmly pressed together by means of screws. The round bundles seen in this view are partly finished pencils and partly tops and bottoms. At this stage of the manufacture the pencils are all square and are now passed on to the planing shop represented in the _sixth plate_. There they are cut to the exact length by means of fine circular saws and then planed round or square, oval or even hexagonal or trigonal by the planing machines, which they reach in a square form. The seventh and eighth plates show those operations which are carried on by females. In the _seventh plate_ to the right the workwomen are seen engaged in polishing the pencils with colours, and to the left those who by means of a lever press stamp the name of the firm upon them. At last the polished and stamped pencils arrive at the room, where they are made up into packets as represented in the _eighth_ plate. Here they are fastened up in dozens, covered with tickets and packed either by the dozen or the gross.