BOOK IX. 369 



fastened in it. The pipe is made of a rolled copper or iron plate, a foot and 

 two palms and the same number of digits long ; the plate is half a digit 

 thick, but a digit thick at the back. The interior of the pipe is three digits 

 wide, and two and a half digits high in the front, for it is not absolutely round ; 

 and at the back it is a foot and two palms and three digits in diameter. The 

 plate from which the pipe is made is not entirely joined up, but at the front 

 there is left a crack half a digit wide, increasing at the back to three digits. 

 This pipe is placed in the hole in the furnace, which, as I said, was in the 

 middle of the wall and the arch. The nozzles of the bellows, placed in this 

 pipe, are a distance of five digits from its front end. 



The levers are of the same number as the bellows, and when depressed 

 by the cams of the long axle they compress the bellows. These levers 

 are eight feet three palms long, one palm wide and thick, and the ends are 

 inserted in the slots of the posts ; they project beyond the front posts to a 

 distance of two palms, and the same distance beyond the back posts in order 

 that each may have its end depressed by its two cams on the axle. The 

 cams not only penetrate into the slots of the back posts, but project three 

 digits beyond them. An iron pin is set in round holes made through both 

 sides of the slot of each front post, at three palms and as many digits from the 

 bottom ; the pin penetrates the lever, which turns about it when depressed 

 or raised. The back of the lever for the length of a cubit is a palm and a 

 digit wider than the rest, and is perforated ; in this hole is engaged a bar 

 six feet and two palms long, three digits wide, and about one and one-half 

 digits thick ; it is somewhat hooked at the upper end, and approaches the 

 handle of the bellows. Under the lever there is a nail, which penetrates 

 through a hole in the bar, so that the lever and bar may move together. The 

 bar is perforated in the upper end at a distance of six digits from the top ; 

 this hole is two palms long and a digit wide, and in it is engaged the hook of 

 an iron implement which is a digit thick. At the upper part this implement 

 has either a round or square opening, Uke a link, and at the lower end is 

 hooked ; the link is two digits high and wide and the hook is three digits long ; 

 the middle part between the hnk and the hook is three palms and two 

 digits long. The link of this implement engages either the handle of the 

 bellows, or else a large ring which does engage it. This iron ring is a digit thick, 

 two palms wide on the inside of the upper part, and two digits in the 

 lower part, and this iron ring, not unlike the first one, engages the 

 handle of the bellows. The iron ring either has its narrower part turned 

 upward, and in it is engaged the ring of another iron implement, similar 

 to the first, whose hook, extending upward, grips the rope fastened to the 

 iron ring holding the end of the second lever, of which I will speak 

 presently ; or else the iron ring grips this lever, and then in its hook is 

 engaged the ring of the other implement whose ring engages the handle of the 

 bellows, and in this case the rope is dispensed with. 



Resting on beams fixed in the two walls is a longitudinal beam, at a 

 distance of four and a half feet from the back posts ; it is two palms wide, 



