pensable now-a-days, are of still more recent use than the andirons, or metal grates; to which, however, they soon became the inseparable appendage. In ancient inventories we meet with "shovel, tongs, and firepan," but never with the fender. At present it would be difficult, indeed, to find a house containing a grate, without at the same time presenting its useful and appropriate companion, a fender.

The first fenders were mere bent pieces of sheet iron, placed in front of the fire, to prevent the brands, or cinders, from rolling off the hearthstone upon the wooden floors. These common articles were, in the first place, either blackened, painted, or polished, according to the taste or the means of the purchaser. Fashion and ingenuity, however, presently combined in the production of that elegant and standard ornament of the hearth, the polished cut steel fender.

The rich and varied open work exhibited in some of these wares is produced by means of the fly-press, in the following ingenious manner :— -The plate, whether of brass or steel, having been prepared by rolling and planishing to the proper strength, and cut with shears to the size required, is brought to the piercing-shop. Here is fixed a very stout fly, represented in fig. 61. A, the body, is eight inches thick about the shoulders, about four feet in height, and three feet wide at the bottom. B is a solid cube of steel, having attached to its lower end a platten, C, with a face five or six inches across, very level: this piece, instead of being attached to the bottom of the screw, as in the common fly press, so as to rise and fall therewith, is separate, and can only be elevated by means of a forked and weighted lever, D, placed behind the body, and acting just underneath the cube or piston, so as to elevate it a little, on the withdrawal of the main screw, after each stroke. Ee are guide pieces, to steady and direct the piston.

Instead of beds and punches, fastened as in the production of ordinary pierce-work, the former in a boss and the latter into the bottom of the piston, the fender

maker uses loose dies and perforated plates, answering to the figure intended to be produced. If the design be

a flower, for example, the shape of the petals, the leaves, and the stem, is accurately perforated through a plate of steel, A (fig. 62.), from four to twelve inches square, and

half an inch in thickness: another plate, B, of the same size, and in every other respect the counterpart of the former, is in like manner perforated. These plates are attached by means of a hinge, in such a way that every portion of the apertures shall perfectly correspond. Besides these, there is likewise attached, by the hinge, an unperforated iron plate, C, much thinner, for the pur

pose of stopping the dies from falling through after each stroke. These dies, D (fig. 62.), are bits of steel, a little more than half an inch long, and filed so as to fit or slide through each separate part of the perforation with the utmost exactness: of course, these types, as they may be called, have their surfaces of the precise form of every petal, leaf, &c., designed to be cut out. To effect this end, a certain portion of the fender plate is placed between the jointed pieces, A B C, which are then brought together upon the intervening substance; the interstices are then filled by the insertion of the hardened steel dies above described, and the whole is placed upon the bed of the fly, F (fig. 61.). In preparing to make a stroke, the workman raises the screw by pushing back the ball, G, of the eight foot lever, after which he runs round with it in the opposite direction; so that by the time the bottom of the screw presses the cube with its platten upon the dies, a momentum has been obtained sufficient to force them at once through the intervening plate, carrying with them the bits which they have respectively cut out. The tools are now taken out, cleared of the bits, the plate re-arranged, and another stroke made as before; which operation is repeated until the perforation of the plate is completed throughout its length.

The plate is then planished or levelled by hammering, after which it is sent to the grinding wheel to be got up on the stone, and afterwards it is polished with emery and crocus marti in a manner similar to the getting up of cutlery. The piercing of brass-faced fenders is effected exactly in the same manner as the perforation of the iron ones: the mode of getting up is likewise similar, only that the brass fronts are, when flat, buffed on a leather-covered wheel with sand, and when fluted they are brushed with rotten-stone and oil. The plates, previously plain or straight, are then bent into the shape desired, and the fender is finished by the riveting of a tube of brass drawn upon an iron rod, along the top; and, in like manner, by the affixing of a

moulding or plinth of brass upon the bottom, and then placing underneath the fender a plate of rolled iron. The whole is usually supported upon four lackered claw or ball feet.

The various descriptions of reeded and other swellwork, exhibited by some superb brass fenders, are raised upon the metal either by means of swaging with a hammer, rolling through grooved rollers, or stamping in a steel die: the last operation is generally resorted to when the work represents scrolls or figures, these being usually stamped one at a time, the metal being pushed along after each impression has been perfected, until the whole length is embossed. The Glasgow Mechanics' Magazine for 1831 contained the following figure and Fig. 63.

A (fig. 63.) the bottom, and B B the sides or uprights of the frame; C and D, guides, of which there are two on each side of the rollers, and which are moved by means of the screws which pass through them. When the machine is to be used, it is placed on an iron stand, or other support, about two feet and a half high, and fastened to the floor. The screws, E E, are then screwed upwards, to separate the rollers, so as to admit the flat plate of brass to be moulded; the end of the plate being inserted between the rollers, the screws, E E, are screwed down, and the rollers turned by means of handles attached to the square projecting ends, FF: by this operation the brass will be moulded according to the pattern upon the rollers. Should the moulding not be completely brought up after having gone once through, it is only necessary to screw the rollers tighter together, and pass it through until the accurate form be obtained. When the plate to be rolled is wider than common, the space may be enlarged by moving one of the uprights nearer to the end of the sole plate or bottom, A.

A variety of fenders, composed chiefly of reticulated wirework, having moulded tops and bottoms of bright metal, have been introduced: some of these have a light and elegant appearance; but as they do not admit of being conveniently cleaned, they are much seldomer composed of polished than of painted wire. This description of articles is more particularly adapted for those situations in which it is necessary to screen the fire, as a provision against the danger to be apprehended from the flying about of hot cinders, the approach of children, &c.

The numerous and fatal accidents occurring to children and others, in consequence of their approaching too near the bars of an open fire-place, have led to the adoption of screens and other contrivances having more or less the character of fenders, and calculated to fence in the burning fuel. More than thirty years since, Mr. Barns, of Glasgow, who had a patent for a stove in the shape of a vase or urn, included in his specification