The machine works smoothly and noiselessly and delivers excellent products. If instead of the usual plain lozenges, such with the name of a firm or other device are desired, the corresponding impressions must be stamped out on the plate in which the chocolate is received after being forced through the perforations. See fig. 66, g, h, i. Fig. 67 illustrates the pastille machine Nr. 14 178 for thin chocolate mass, constructed by A. Reiche (German Patent 227 200). It resembles the foregoing apparatus in principle and appearance, being only distinguished by a different aim, namely the treatment of thin material. Used in conjunction with the peculiar moulds also manufactured by the same firm (marked “Durabula”), even the deepest impressions can be effected with an enormous saving of time and material and in a most practical manner, as will be seen on comparing figs. 69 _a_ to _d_. In order to get the full value out of this machine, some little practice is necessary on the part of the workman in charge. But possessed of an average amount of skill, he can soon turn out with this apparatus ten times as much as can be made with the ordinary type of lozenge machine. For a favourable accommodation of the different pastille plates, the hurdle diagrammed in fig. 68 (by A. Reiche) is quite excellent. It is manufactured out of one complete sheet of steel, is free from any suspicion of soldering, and entirely galvanised. It thus offers a strong guarantee as regards wear and tear. It may also be advantageously employed as a transporting device. b) ~Coated chocolates, pralinés etc.~ These delicacies are now held in high esteem, and of late the consumption of pralinés and cheaper forms with imitative contents has increased very considerably. The designation praliné (properly pronounced prahlin) has been applied to sugar-coated almonds and is derived from the name of a cook in the employ of Marshal du Plessis, which was Pralins. This “chef” belonged to the age of Louis XIV. and was the first to make these sweetmeats. But now the term is applied to sweetmeats of various forms, soft fruit-sugar, marmalade, cream, nut-paste etc. respectively enveloped in chocolate. The special formulae employed in the preparation of different kinds of pralinés are comprised in the confectioner’s art, and do not need to be dealt with here. The substances themselves are called fondants. Formerly the sugar was boiled, placed upon a slab, and there manipulated with a spatula, an operation difficult to manage, indeed almost impossible in the last stages. In consequence of the increased demand for such preparations, machines were introduced several years ago whereby the operation is mechanically performed. Such a machine is shown in fig. 70. [Illustration: Fig. 70.]