(1) The following is the general principle of the ruling machine:
There is a band about 1 yd. wide which goes round and round in a large ellipse (one flat side of the ellipse is about 3½ yds. long). Upon this band the sheets of paper are placed by the girls, and by it they are drawn under a row of pens set at the required intervals for the lines. They are then carried up and round by the revolutions of the band—being held in their places by string which revolves with the band—and fall out of the machine with the ink dry.
A good many machines are fitted with a second row of pens which rules the underneath side of the paper as well as the upper.
The pens are fed by a piece of flannel which is kept soaked by a regular flow of ink from a vessel fitted with a small tap.
These machines are worked by power. They used to be worked by hand.
(2) Perforating is done by a machine worked by a treadle. A good many foreign and colonial postage stamps are done here.
Numbering of loose pages, cheques, receipts, etc., is done by a machine with a handle which has to be pulled down by hand.
Paging, which is for made-up books, is done by a machine worked by a treadle.
REGULARITY.—The summer is a slack season in this trade as a rule. The firm are especially slack just now (August) as there are no orders from South Africa.
HEALTH.—The upper floor was exceedingly, almost insupportably, stuffy. The ground floor was fairly airy. The under-forewoman said that working the treadle for paging was very hard work. "It always upset her inside," so she had to give it up.