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      THE GOLD-BEATER.
  THE Gold-beater, according to his name,
continually beats gold or silver in thin
skins, upon marble, with a hammer that
is large and heavy; reducing those me-
tals into very thin leaves for the pur-
pose of gilding or silvering copper, iron,
steel, wood, and other materials.
  For the farther extension of gold plates
into fine leaves, it is necessary to inter-
pose some smooth body between them
and the hammer, in order to soften the
blow, and defend them from the rude-
ness of the immediate action; as also to
place between every two of the pieces, some
intermedium which, while it prevents them
from uniting together, or injuring one ano-
ther, may suffer them freely to extend.
For this, Gold-beaters use three kinds of
membranes for the outside cover, common
parchment made of sheep-skin; for inter-
laying with the gold the closes are vellum
made of call'skins; and afterwards finer
skins made of a thin substance stript off
from the gut, slit open and curiously pre-
pared for the purpose; hence the name of
Gold-beaters'skin. The beating of the gold
is performed on a smooth block of marble
fitted into the middle of a wvooden frame.