Agricola, Georgius, De re metallica, 1912/1950

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    <archimedes>
      <text>
        <body>
          <chap>
            <p type="caption">
              <s>
                <pb pagenum="529"/>
              raises the door in the manner I have described, and with a long iron hook
                <lb/>
              inserted into the haft of the bar he draws it through the hole in the left wall
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              from the hole in the right wall; afterward he pushes it back and replaces it.
                <lb/>
              </s>
              <s>The master then takes out the exhausted liquation cakes nearest to him with
                <lb/>
              the iron hook; then he pulls out the cakes from the bricks. </s>
              <s>This hook is
                <lb/>
              two palms high, as many digits wide, and one thick; its iron handle is two
                <lb/>
              feet long, and the wooden handle eleven feet long. </s>
              <s>There is also a two­
                <lb/>
              pronged rake with which the “dried” cakes are drawn over to the left side so
                <lb/>
              that they may be seized with tongs; the prongs of the rake are pointed,
                <lb/>
              and are two palms long, as many digits wide, and one digit thick; the iron
                <lb/>
              part of the handle is a foot long, the wooden part nine feet long. </s>
              <s>The
                <lb/>
              “dried” cakes, taken out of the hearth by the master and his assistants,
                <lb/>
              are seized with other tongs and thrown into the rectangular tank, which is
                <lb/>
              almost filled with water. </s>
              <s>These tongs are two feet and three palms long,
                <lb/>
              both the handles are round and more than a digit thick, and the ends are
                <lb/>
              bent for a palm and two digits; both the jaws are a digit and a half wide
                <lb/>
              in front and sharpened; at the back they are a digit thick, and then gradually
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              taper, and when closed, the interior is two palms and as many digits wide.</s>
            </p>
            <p type="main">
              <s>The “dried” cakes which are dripping copper are not immediately dipped
                <lb/>
              into the tank, because, if so, they burst in fragments and give out a sound
                <lb/>
              like thunder. </s>
              <s>The cakes are afterward taken out of the tank with the
                <lb/>
              tongs, and laid upon the two transverse planks on which the workmen stand;
                <lb/>
              the sooner they are taken out the easier it is to chip off the copper that
                <lb/>
              has become ash-coloured. </s>
              <s>Finally, the master, with a spade, raises up the
                <lb/>
              bricks a little from the hearth, while they are still warm. </s>
              <s>The blade of the
                <lb/>
              spade is a palm and two digits long, the lower edge is sharp, and is a palm
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              and a digit wide, the upper end a palm wide; its handle is round, the iron
                <lb/>
              part being two feet long, and the wooden part seven and a half feet long.</s>
            </p>
            <p type="main">
              <s>On the fourth day the master draws out the liquation thorns which
                <lb/>
              have settled in the passages; they are much richer in silver than those
                <lb/>
              that are made when the silver-lead is liquated from copper in the liquation
                <lb/>
              furnace. </s>
              <s>The “dried” cakes drip but little copper, but nearly all their
                <lb/>
              remaining silver-lead and the thorns consist of it, for, indeed, in one
                <lb/>
                <emph type="italics"/>
              centumpondium
                <emph.end type="italics"/>
              of “dried” copper there should remain only half an
                <emph type="italics"/>
              uncía
                <emph.end type="italics"/>
                <lb/>
              of silver, and there sometimes remain only three
                <emph type="italics"/>
              drachmae.
                <emph.end type="italics"/>
                <emph type="sup"/>
              22
                <emph.end type="sup"/>
              Some smelters
                <lb/>
              chip off the metal adhering to the bricks with a hammer, in order that it
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              may be melted again; others, however, crush the bricks under the stamps
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              and wash them, and the copper and lead thus collected is melted again. </s>
              <s>The
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              master, when he has taken these things away and put them in their places,
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              has finished his day's work.</s>
            </p>
            <p type="main">
              <s>The assistants take the “dried” cakes out of the tank on the
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              next day, place them on an oak block, and first pound them with rounded
                <lb/>
              hammers in order that the ash-coloured copper may fall away from them, </s>
            </p>
          </chap>
        </body>
      </text>
    </archimedes>
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