Agricola, Georgius, De re metallica, 1912/1950

Table of figures

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    <archimedes>
      <text>
        <body>
          <chap>
            <p type="caption">
              <s>
                <pb pagenum="376"/>
              described above, is drawn backward and forward upon narrow boards of
                <lb/>
              equal length placed over a long box; the powder which falls through the
                <lb/>
              sieve into the box is suitable for the mixture; the lumps that remain in the
                <lb/>
              sieve are thrown away by some people, but by others they are placed under
                <lb/>
              the stamps. </s>
              <s>This powdered earth is mixed with powdered charcoal, moist­
                <lb/>
              ened, and thrown into a pit, and in order that it may remain good for a long
                <lb/>
              time, the pit is covered up with boards so that the mixture may not
                <lb/>
              become contaminated.</s>
            </p>
            <p type="main">
              <s>They take two parts of pulverised charcoal and one part of powdered
                <lb/>
              earth, and mix them well together with a rake; the mixture is moistened by
                <lb/>
              pouring water over it so that it may easily be made into shapes resembling
                <lb/>
              snowballs; if the powder be light it is moistened with more water, if heavy
                <lb/>
              with less. </s>
              <s>The interior of the new furnace is lined with lute, so that the
                <lb/>
              cracks in the walls, if there are any, may be filled up, but especially in order
                <lb/>
              to preserve the rock from injury by fire. </s>
              <s>In old furnaces in which ore has
                <lb/>
              been melted, as soon as the rocks have cooled the assistant chips away, with
                <lb/>
              a spatula, the accretions which adhere to the walls, and then breaks them
                <lb/>
              up with an iron hoe or a rake with five teeth. </s>
              <s>The cracks of the furnace are
                <lb/>
              first filled in with fragments of rock or brick, which he does by passing his
                <lb/>
              hand into the furnace through its mouth, or else, having placed a ladder against
                <lb/>
              it, he mounts by the rungs to the upper open part of the furnace. </s>
              <s>To the
                <lb/>
              upper part of the ladder a board is fastened that he may lean and recline
                <lb/>
              against it. </s>
              <s>Then standing on the same ladder, with a wooden spatula, he
                <lb/>
              smears the furnace walls over with lute; this spatula is four feet long, a digit
                <lb/>
              thick, and for a foot upward from the bottom it is a palm wide, or even
                <lb/>
              wider, generally two and a half digits. </s>
              <s>He spreads the lute equally over the
                <lb/>
              inner walls of the furnace. </s>
              <s>The mouth of the copper pipe
                <emph type="sup"/>
              9
                <emph.end type="sup"/>
              should not pro­
                <lb/>
              trude from the lute, lest sows
                <emph type="sup"/>
              10
                <emph.end type="sup"/>
              form round about it and thus impede the
                <lb/>
              melting, for the furnace bellows could not force a blast through them. </s>
              <s>Then
                <lb/>
              the same assistant throws a little powdered charcoal into the pit of the fore­
                <lb/>
              hearth and sprinkles it with pulverised earth. </s>
              <s>Afterward, with a bucket
                <lb/>
              he pours water into it and sweeps this all over the forehearth pit, and with the
                <lb/>
              broom drives the turbid water into the furnace hearth and likewise sweeps
                <lb/>
              it out. </s>
              <s>Next he throws the mixed and moistened powder into the furnace,
                <lb/>
              and then a second time mounting the steps of the ladder, he introduces the
                <lb/>
              rammer into the furnace and pounds the powder so that the hearth is made
                <lb/>
              solid. </s>
              <s>The rammer is rounded and three palms long; at the bottom it is five
                <lb/>
              digits in diameter, at the top three and a half, therefore it is made in the form
                <lb/>
              of a truncated cone; the handle of the rammer is round and five feet long and
                <lb/>
              </s>
            </p>
          </chap>
        </body>
      </text>
    </archimedes>
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