roll 21 the dry felt 15 is then returned to the deflection roll 17 by another deflection roll 21a in a similar way the dry felt 13 which wraps the drying cylinder 1 about a wrapping angle c is guided by deflection rolls 23 and 23a and the dry felt 11 which wraps the drying cylinder 1 about a wrapping angle d is guided by deflection rolls 25 25a and 25b only the first dry felt 9 remains in contact with the paper web 7 as it runs about the deflection roll 5 fig1 clearly shows that the wrapping angle a of the first dry felt is largest while the wrapping angles d c b of the following one another dry felts 11 13 and 15 are stepwise smaller with this inventive arrangement of the dry felts the pressing force acting on the paper web 7 is stepwise reduced with the biggest force being applied in the wrapping region defined by the wrapping angle b when all four dry felts 9 11 13 and 15 lie on the paper web 7 while the pressing force at the end of the wrapping region defined by the wrapping angle a is zero thus four different pressure zones z1 z2 z3 and z4 are formed in the wrapping region which defines the contact of the paper web 7 with the dry cylinder 1 when the paper web 7 passes the first pressure region z1 a very high pressing force is applied thereto and a very good heat transfer from the.