66a 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The cutter selects the pattern which will cut to the best ad- 

 vantage, lays it on the sheet of mica, and then, holding the two 

 firmly together, trims off the edges of the mica to make it corre- 

 spond with the pattern. She puts both mica and pattern in their 

 proper place in the case before her. Then she takes up another 

 piece of mica, and finding the best pattern, proceeds to shape the 

 sheet as before. In this way the rough plates of mica are reduced 

 to uniformity and are sorted as they are cut. When the cutter 

 completes her task, she has all the mica piled away in little bun- 

 dles under their corresponding patterns, while the scrap falls in a 

 glistening heap on the floor. 



The cleaning process comes next. The cleaner sits directly in 

 front of a window and must examine each sheet of cut mica by 

 holding it up between her eyes and the light. If there be any 

 imperfections, and there nearly always are, they must be removed 

 by stripping off the offending layers of mica until a clear sheet re- 

 mains. The cleaning is done by means of a sharp penknife and 

 considerable discretion. It is quite easy to tear away the entire 

 sheet and have nothing left for one's trouble. Both the cutting 

 and cleaning are tiresome routine operations, yet there is a certain 

 fascination about tearing the mica to pieces that few have philos- 

 ophy enough to resist. One soon becomes absorbed in the task of 

 seeing just how thin a sheet of mica can be separated, and before 

 one realizes it an hour or more is gone. 



Finally, the cut and cleaned mica is put up in pound packages 

 and is ready for the market. 



There is an enormous waste in the processes of preparation. 

 One hundred pounds of block mica will scarcely yield more than 

 about fifteen pounds of cut mica, and sometimes it is even less. 

 The proportion varies, of course, with different localities. 



The chief use of the cut mica is in stoves, and its comparative 

 cheapness has made possible the luminous not to say artistic 

 wonders which constitute the latest and most cheerful creations 

 of the stove-men. In Siberia the sheets of mica are still some- 



