operator's hand, the frame, fork, etc., being supported on a bench. The sand blasters wear masks and cloaks which make them appear like the pictures of torturers in illustrations of the old Spanish Inquisition. From the filing up or sand blasting shops the frames go to the iron polishers. These men or women (for female labour is employed for polishing) hold the frames on grinding wheels or in some cases endless belts coated with emery, and they grind or polish the whole frame till it is bright and very smooth.
The frames and forks then go to the enamellers, a part of the factory we shall visit presently, when the other parts are ready for the painting process.
The Machine Shop is the department where all the parts that require turning, boring, milling, or profiling, are machined, as the various metal removing processes are termed. Here we may see turret lathes, forming hubs from bar steel, milling machines, forming the teeth on sprocket wheels for the reception of the driving chain, milling or profiling cranks, turning and boring frame lugs and fork crowns, profiling the internal parts of free wheels, and a hundred other small parts that go to make up brakework, pedals, etc. Small screws, nuts, steps, bolts, etc., are usually bought from specialists who can make these parts from steel bars in automatic lathes at very much lower prices than can a cycle manufacturer, who would have a comparatively few of each to make before he had to change the tools in the machine. Hubs are made from stampings and castings as well as from bar steel, opinion being divided as to the economy of the three processes.
The wheel building is often done by women and girls. The steel rims are drilled or punched in special machines which space out the holes evenly, for 32, 36, 40, or 44 spokes, according to whether they are to be used in
