inspect some of the numerous industries for which the town is so famous,
and returned Friday night, filled with great thoughts of the wonders of
Yankee inventive genius.

While there we had the good fortune to be admitted to a pin-factory, an
iron-foundry, a watch-factory, and the most extensive brass-works in the
world.

I shall here limit myself to a brief description of the last.

Brass is made by melting together in large crucibles certain proportions
of copper and zinc. The heat applied must be considerable, for during the
fusion of the two metals a white flame from the zinc and a green one from
the copper flash from the mouth of the crucible. When properly mixed the
molten alloy is poured into rectangular or cylindrical moulds. After
cooling, the bars are driven between immense rollers, to be formed into
sheet-brass. This process is very much like rolling out dough for
pie-crust, and is repeated many times. But the great pressure to which the
sheets are subjected makes the alloy very brittle, so that it has to be
softened or "annealed," as it is called, by being heated red-hot in very
large ovens before each re-rolling. When the sheets have attained the
required thinness, they are cut into widths and lengths suitable for easy
handling, transportation, and manufacture.

We also saw sheets of copper and German silver made in a similar manner.
The latter is simply brass that has had some nickel added to it to make it
white like silver.

The cylindrical casts above mentioned are placed in machines that draw
them into wire or tubing. The process is a most interesting one, though