Agricola, Georgius, De re metallica, 1912/1950

Table of figures

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              a bellows. </s>
              <s>From the crucible is a small pipe through which the molten
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              bismuth runs down into a dipping-pot, and from this cakes are made.</s>
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              <s>On a dump thrown up from the mines, other people construct a hearth
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              exposed to the wind, a foot high, three feet wide, and four and a half feet
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              long. </s>
              <s>It is held together by four boards, and the whole is thickly coated at
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              the top with lute. </s>
              <s>On this hearth they first put small dried sticks of fir wood,
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              then over them they throw broken ore; then they lay more wood over it,
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              and when the wind blows they kindle it. </s>
              <s>In this manner the bismuth drips
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              out of the ore, and afterward the ashes of the wood consumed by the fire and
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              the charcoals are swept away. </s>
              <s>The drops of bismuth which fall down into
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              the hearth are congealed by the cold, and they are taken away with the
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              tongs and thrown into a basket. </s>
              <s>From the melted bismuth they make
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              cakes in iron pans.</s>
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            <figure number="240"/>
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              <s>A—HEARTH IN WHICH ORE IS MELTED. B—HEARTH ON WHICH LIE DROPS OF BISMUTH.
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              C—TONGS. D—BASKET. E—WIND.</s>
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              <s>Others again make a box eight feet long, four feet wide, and two feet high,
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              which they fill almost full of sand and cover with bricks, thus making
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              the hearth. </s>
              <s>The box has in the centre a wooden pivot, which turns in a hole
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              in two beams laid transversely one upon the other; these beams are hard and
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              thick, are sunk into the ground, both ends are perforated, and through </s>
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