THE .MANUFACTURE OF OALOMEL TX JAPA^'. 7 



On :i smoothed dav hearth tlie walls of the furnace are raised in 

 cl:iy, building", in the three stones which frame tlie stoke hole (Fig. -). 

 The walls are 2.() ft. high and the enclosure is 7.6 ft. by 4.7 ft. 

 measured outside. The stoke hole is 1 ft. by 1 ft., but a little wider 

 than tliis at the base, and is without dooi-, Tlie table of pots and roof 

 of the furnace is construeted (PI. I and PI. II, fig. i) by laying a square 

 iron rod on each of the hing walls, and on these eleven cross rods also 

 square on which are to rest the flanges of the pots. The j)ots are 

 then put in position as close together as possible, hanging by their 

 flanges, in ten rows of six each, and plastic clay pressed int(j the o]ien- 

 ino-s left between the flano-es and the rods, and the rods and flanijes 

 covered in so that only the mouths of the pots remain visible, as 

 shown by the middle rows in Fig. '2. The furnaee clay being 

 thoroughly dry, it is deeply laid over with the red earth mixed with 

 a little bay salt and moistened with bittern in small quantity. The 

 pots are also tilled with the same moist red earth, exc-ept a central 

 cylindrical shaft (see the left side of the furnace-table in PI. I or the 

 right side in PI. II, fig. 2) reaching to tlie bottom of the pot, which is 

 left bare. The pot is 0.5 ft. dee]:> inside, and across its mouth, inside, is 

 0.45 ft. It is shown in PI. Ill, fig. 4. The shaft or cavity left in the 

 filling is 0. IS ft. in diameter, and is shaped by resting a wooden core 

 on the bottom of the empty pot, and then pressing-in the moist earth 

 round it, smootliing-oif the top, and dropping a perforated lioai-d over 

 tlie projecting core to hold down the earth Avhile withdrawing tlie core 

 which is then removed by its handle. The furnace is now ready for 

 work. It should have been mentioned that after the clay walls of the 

 furnace are built rhey nve framed-in witli wood to increase their 

 stability and to give support to a wooden back and to shelving above 

 the table, as seen in PI. I. 



O/' tlie firing.- — The firing the pots is kept far below what are 



