BOOK X. 471 



diameter than the rammer-head, and is three feet in length ; the rammer- 

 head as well as the handle is made of one piece of wood. Then with shoes on, 

 he descends into the crucible and stamps it in every direction with his feet, 

 in which manner it is packed and made sloping. Then he again tamps it 

 with a large rammer, and removing his shoe from his right foot he draws a circle 

 around the crucible with it, and cuts out the circle thus drawn with an iron 

 plate. This plate is curved at both ends, is three palms long, as many digits 

 wide, and has wooden handles a palm and two digits long, and two digits 

 thick ; the iron plate is curved back at the top and ends, which penetrate 

 into handles. There are some who use in the place of the plate a strip of 

 wood, like the rim of a sieve ; this is three digits wide, and is cut out at both 

 ends that it may be held in the hands. Afterward he tamps the channel 

 through which the litharge discharges. Lest the ashes should fall out, he 

 blocks up the aperture with a stone shaped to fit it, against which he places 

 a board, and lest this fall, he props it with a stick. Then he pours in 

 a basketful of ashes and tamps them with the large rammer ; then again and 

 again he pours in ashes and tamps them with the rammer. When the 

 channel has been made, he throws dry ashes all over the crucible with a sieve, 

 and smooths and rubs it with his hands. Then he throws three basketsful 

 of damp ashes on the margin all round the edge of the crucible, and lets down 

 the dome. Soon after, climbing upon the crucible, he builds up ashes all 

 around it, lest the molten alloy should flow out. Then, having raised the lid of 

 the dome, he throws a basketful of charcoal into the crucible, together with 

 an iron shovelful of glowing coals, and he also throws some of the latter 

 through the apertures in the sides of the dome, and he spreads them with the 

 same shovel. This work and labour is finished in the space of two hours. 



An iron plate is set in the ground under the channel, and upon this is 

 placed a wooden block, three feet and a palm long, a foot and two palms and 

 as many digits wide at the back, and two palms and as many digits wide in 

 front ; on the block of wood is placed a stone, and over it an iron plate similar 

 to the bottom one, and upon this he puts a basketful of charcoal, and also 

 an iron shovelful of burning charcoals. The crucible is heated in an 

 hour, and then, with the hooked bar with which the litharge is drawn off, he 

 stirs the remainder of the charcoal about. This hook is a palm long and three 

 digits wide, has the form of a double triangle, and has an iron handle four 

 feet long, into which is set a wooden one six feet long. There are some who 

 use instead a simple hooked bar. After about an hour's time, he stirs the 

 charcoal again with the bar, and with the shovel throws into the crucible 

 the burning charcoals lying in the channel ; then again, after the space of an 

 hour, he stirs the burning charcoals with the same bar. If he did not thus 

 stir them about, some blackness would remain in the crucible and that part 

 would be damaged, because it would not be sufficiently dried. Therefore 

 the assistant stirs and turns the burning charcoal that it may be entirely- 

 burnt up, and so that the crucible may be well heated, which takes three 

 hours ; then the crucible is left quiet for the remaining two hours. 



