This painting illustrates an open headbox, the forerunner of the modern head box, where slurry is sprayed onto the wire. Fibers flowing onto the wire act like logs floating down a stream and line up in the direction of the flow. Most of the water is quickly removed by gravity and suction as the pulp fibers knit into paper. In the background a couch roll can be seen. The couch roll will "pick" the sheet off the wire and transfer it to a felt for pressing and drying.

The man is adjusting valves in order to change the amount of stock sprayed. This is done by varying the depth of the slurry in the headbox. The higher the slurry, the faster it will come out.