BOOK XI. 



501 



it in this case, when it used formerly to be produced at Puteoli from lead 

 alone when melted by a fierce fire in the cupellation furnace.* Afterward 

 these cakes of lead are carried into the lead store-room. 



The cakes of copper, put into wheelbarrows, are carried into the third 

 part of the building, where each is laid upon a saddle, and is broken up by 

 the impact of successive blows from the iron-shod stamp. This machine 

 is made by placing upon the ground a block of oak, five feet long and three feet 



A — Block of wood. B — Upright posts. C — Transverse beams. D— Head of the 

 STAMP. E — Its tooth. F — The hole in the stamp-stem. G — Iron bar. H — Masses 

 OF lead. I — The bronze saddle. K — Axle. L — Its arms. M — Little iron axle. 



N — Bronze pipe. 



wide and thick ; it is cut out in the middle for a length of two feet and two 

 palms, a width of two feet, and a depth of three palms and two digits, and is 

 open in front ; the higher part of it is at the back, and the wide part Ues fiat 

 in the block. In the middle of it is placed a bronze saddle. Its base 

 is a palm and two digits wide, and is planted between two masses of 

 lead, and extends under them to a depth of a palm on both sides. 

 The whole saddle is three palms and two digits wide, a foot long, and 



*This is, no doubt, a reference to Pliny's statement (xxxiii, 35) regarding litharge 

 at Puteoli. This passage from Pliny is given in the footnote on p. 466. Puteoli was situated on 

 the Bay of Naples. 



