160 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ond furnace, which, is exactly like that already described ; 3 is 

 manoeuvring- the lever, to one end of which the ladle containing 

 the melted iron is suspended; 4 holds the handle and tips the 

 ladle, thus regulating the pouring of the metal ; * i, the hole from 

 which the ladle ~k, forming the base of the second furnace, was 

 taken for pouring; I, the upper part of the furnace removed ; n, 

 mold in which the iron is being poured." 



Re'aunmr also describes a third apparatus for melting cast 

 iron, which consists of a furnace of similar form to that just de- 

 scribed, but without the removable ladle bottom. This furnace 

 was supported on "trunnions" by a carriage mounted on wheels ; 

 at a proper height above the bottom was a " tap-hole," and on the 

 opposite side an opening, or tuyere, for the nose of the bellows. 

 The iron to be melted was (as in the last furnace) mixed directly 

 with the fuel, and when it became fluid accumulated in the bot- 

 tom of the furnace ; as soon as all the iron was melted, the " tap- 

 hole " was opened and the bellows removed ; the whole body of 

 the furnace was then turned on its " trunnions," and the metal 

 run off through the " tap-hole " into " molds " placed to receive it. 

 This furnace was at a later period called a "calabash," and it 

 may be regarded as the direct progenitor of the modern foundry 

 " cupola " ; and it is not more than forty years since a very simi- 

 lar apparatus was in use in this country for melting brass ; but in 

 this the furnace, after the metal was melted, was suspended by its 

 "trunnions" to a crane, and, being without a "tap-hole," the 

 metal was run into the molds by inclining the furnace sufficiently 

 to allow it to run over the top. 



The reader must not infer that the primitive lever crane, illus- 

 trated in Fig. 8, was the only form known in the early part of 

 the last century ; as, on the contrary, Agricola, more than one hun- 

 dred and fifty years before, described and illustrated several cranes 

 of much more elaborate construction, some of which are quite simi- 

 lar in idea to foundry cranes in common use at the present day. 



As in some degree illustrative of the rude picturesqueness of 

 all the belongings of the old type of charcoal furnace, we have 

 engraved (Fig. 0) a view of the remains of one situated on the 

 Conemaugh River, in western Pennsylvania. The "hot-blast 

 stove " which surmounts the " stack " is evidence that the spirit 

 of- modern progress has wrestled with the inevitable in vain, and 

 the broken " blast-pipes," grass-grown " stack," and luxuriant sur- 

 rounding vegetation, show that the breath of igneous life has 

 passed away forever, and that Nature is claiming her own again. 



The old colonial iron- works were of necessity located in val- 

 leys where advantage could be taken of a natural fall of water, or 

 where a stream could be dammed at small expense ; and, although 

 when measured by the standards of our time, they were very 



