The brass-finishing shop, which is illustrated on Plate LII., facing page 110, serves both for ship and engine work. It has only recently been laid out anew. The machines, according to the latest practice, are arranged down each side of the shop, and the benches occupy the centre. Each alternate bench is utilised for the material to be operated upon, so that the working bench is not littered in a confused way, as is too often the case. There are representative types of the best makes of automatic tools, turret lathes, brass-finishers' lathes, and grinding machines with specially large discs. A considerable amount of work is done to limit gauge in all the shops which we have described. This practice has been considerably developed recently, and a specially equipped department has been organised, where gauges, templates, and cutting tools are made. This department is illustrated on Plate LIII., facing this page. A word may first be said as to the significance of this new department. Where three or four ships have engines of the same type, a set of jigs and templates for the most important parts are at once made, so that a unit from an engine in one ship may be fitted to an engine in another. This simplifies the ordering of new parts, and greatly reduces the number of spare items which have to be kept in store by the owners, in order that repairs or refits may be effected at short notice. For some time the Scotts have adopted this system, so that it was a simple matter to enforce it in connection with the machinery of the twenty Thames Steamers, and in recent naval work, where the practice is being applied in an extended form. In the recent Admiralty work every part of an engine is made interchangeable and identical with the corresponding parts of other engines for the same type of ship, although built in different parts of the country; and this fact alone will indicate the extent and intricacy as well as the care and degree of accuracy necessary. This standardisation to ensure interchangeability has reached its highest exemplification in the case of the machinery for the armoured cruiser _Defence_, of 27,000 indicated horse-power, to be completed in twenty-one months from the placing of the order by the Admiralty. [Illustration: Plate LIII. TOOL, GAUGE, TEMPLATE, AND JIG DEPARTMENT.]