352 On the Manufacture of Tin-plate. 
the sizes suitable to the different markets.* 
And as the shearer shears the plates, he piles 
them in heaps, occasionally putting one plate 
the cross way, to keep each box separate. 
Two hundred and twenty-five plates are call- 
ed a box, but they are not put into boxes of 
wood in this stage of the operation. The 
iron plates now go into the hands of the 
scaler, who takes them from the shear-house, 
and bends each of them singly across the 
middle, into thisform 4, preparatory to their 
being cleaned for tinning, and for the con- 
veniency of putting them into the scaling 
furnace, as will be more fully explained 
hereafter. 
‘This furnace, or oven, is heated by flame 
thrown into it from a fire place of a peculiar 
construction, and it is this flame that scales 
the plates, which are put into the oven in 
rows, and arranged three in each row, until 
the oven is full. It will be obvious that if 
they lay flat on the floor of the oven, the 
* These plates are generally cut by hand, but an inge- 
nious Whitesmith in Glamorganshire, a few years ago in- 
vented a method of shearing them by a machine. This 
machine is worked by a water-wheel, and will shear 100 
boxes per day—whereas a hand-shearer cannot complete 
more than 25 boxes in the same period of time. 
