The steel on leaving the mill is conveyed to the gauging room, and it will be found to have increased to three times its original length, and now appears with a bright surface. Hitherto the operations have been conducted by men and boys; but now, in the course of manufacture, the pens will enter on a series of processes in which the quick and delicate fingers of women and girls play an important part. The strips of steel are now given out to the cutters. The _Toolmaker,_ who, as a rule, both makes and sets the tools, has placed in what is known as a bolster a die, having a hole perforated through it of the exact shape of the blank to be cut; and attached to the bottom of the screwed bolt of the press is a punch, also bearing the exact shape of the blank. The girl with her left hand introduces one of the strips of steel at the back of the press, and, pulling the handle toward her with the right hand, the screw descends, driving the punch into the bed, and in so doing has perforated the strip of steel with a scissors-like cut, making a blank which falls through the opening in the die into a drawer below. Now, with her left hand she pulls the strip toward her until it is stopped by a little projection called a guide; and again the right hand moves the handle, the screw descends, and another blank is cut. The operation is continued until the whole of one side of the strip is perforated; it is then reversed and the other side treated in a similar way. If you were to hold up the strip thus manipulated--now called scrap--you would find that in some particular part the perforations approach so nearly to each other as to form a slight bar, which breaks easily between the thumb and finger. This is rendered necessary from the fact that steel scrap is worth only one-fifth of the value of the raw material, and, as under the most favorable conditions, the scrap averages one-third the original weight given out for cutting, it behooves the manufacturer to reduce the scrap as much as practicable. If these blanks are examined, a small V-shaped indentation, looking like a defect, will be found upon the upper edge of that part inserted in the holder. This small mark plays an important part in the succeeding processes. To a casual observer there does not appear much difference between the two sides of the blank; but, however well the tools are made, that side of the blank which is uppermost in cutting out will be rougher than the under side. This mark enables the operator to distinguish at a glance the smooth side, and by always keeping the rough side upward the burr is polished off in a later process. The blanks are now ready to be passed to the next process--_marking._ This operation is performed by a female, with the aid of a stamp. The precise mark required is cut upon a piece of steel, and, being placed in the hammer of the stamp, the girl puts her right foot into a stirrup attached to a rope, which