436 



BOOK IX. 



a bellows. From the crucible is a small pipe through which the molten 

 bismuth runs down into a dipping-pot, and from this cakes are made. 



On a dump thrown up from the mines, other people construct a hearth 

 exposed to the wind, a foot high, three feet wide, and four and a half feet 

 long. It is held together by four boards, and the whole is thickly coated at 

 the top with lute. On this hearth they first put small dried sticks of fir wood, 

 then over them they throw broken ore ; then they lay more wood over it, 

 and when the wind blows they kindle it. In this manner the bismuth drips 

 out of the ore, and afterward the ashes of the wood consumed by the fire and 

 the charcoals are swept away. The drops of bismuth which fall down into 

 the hearth are congealed by the cold, and they are taken away with the 

 tongs and thrown into a basket. From the melted bismuth they make 

 cakes in iron pans. 



A — Hearth in which ore is melted. B — Hearth on which lie drops of bismuth. 



C— Tongs. D— Basket. E— Wind. 



Others again make a box eight feet long, four feet wide, and two feet high, 

 which they fill almost full of sand and cover with bricks, thus making 

 the hearth. The box has in the centre a wooden pivot, which turns in a hole 

 in two beams laid transversely one upon the other ; these beams are hard and 

 thick, are sunk into the ground, both ends are perforated, and through 



