5o8 



BOOK XL 



board is made of elder-wood or willow, and is ten digits long, six wide, and one 

 and a half digits thick ; the iron bar is three feet long, and the wooden 

 handle inserted into it is two and a half feet long. While he purges the 

 alloy and pours it out with a ladle into the copper mould, the fragments of 

 copper from which he is to make the second cake are melting. As soon as 

 this begins to run down he again throws in Utharge, and when he has put on 

 more charcoal he adds the lead. This operation he repeats until thirty 

 liquation cakes have been made, on which work he expends nine hours, or at 

 most ten ; if more than thirty cakes must be made, then he is paid for 

 another shift when he has made an extra thirty. 



At the same time that he pours the copper-lead alloy into the copper 

 mould, he also pours water slowly into the top of the mould. Then, with a 

 cleft stick, he takes a hook and puts its straight stem into the molten cake. 

 The hook itself is a digit and a half thick ; its straight stem is two palms 

 long and two digits wide and thick. Afterward he pours more water over the 

 cakes. When they are cold he places an iron ring in the hook of the chain 



A — Furnace in which " slags " are re-smelted. B — Furnace in which copper is 



ALLOYED WITH LEAD. C — DoOR. D — FoRE-HEARTHS ON THE GROUND. E — CoPPER 



MOULDS. F — Rabble. G — Hook. H — Cleft stick. I— Arm of the crane. 



K — The hook of its chain. 



