VOL. XII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TBANSACTI0N8. 410 



wood, especially hasel and oak; of which last sort it has produced formerly very 

 stately timber ; though now almost totally destroyed by the increase of the iron 

 works. — On the surface of the earth in many places, lie abundance of rough 

 stones, some of them of great bulk; but where the mines are sunk, they rather 

 meet with veins of scaly stone than hard and solid rocks. Within the forest is 

 found great plenty of coal and iron-ore; and in some places red and yellow ochre; 

 which are all the minerals that are yet discovered there. — ^The iron-ore is found 

 in great abundance in most parts of the forest : differing both in colour, weight 

 and goodness. The best, which they call their brush-ore, is of a bluish colour; 

 very ponderous and full of little shining specks, like grains of silver. This 

 affords the greatest quantity of iron; but being melted alone, it produces a 

 metal very short and brittle, and therefore not so fit for common use. 



To remedy this inconvenience they make use of a material which they call 

 cinder, being only the refuse of the ore after the metal has been extracted ; 

 which being mingled with the other in a due quantity, gives it that excellent 

 temper of toughness, for which this iron is preferred before any that is brought 

 from foreign parts. 



To understand this rightly, it is to be noted, that in former times when their 

 works were few, and their vent small, they made use of no other bellows but 

 such as were moved by the strength of men : by reason whereof their fires were 

 much less intense than in the furnaces they now employ. So that having in 

 them melted down only the principal part of the ore; they rejected the rest as 

 useless, and not worth their charge. This they call their cinder, which is now 

 found in an inexhaustible quantity through all parts of the country, where any 

 former works have stood. 



After they have provided their ore, their first work is to calcine it : which is 

 done in kilns, much after the fashion of ordinary lime-kilns. These they fill up 

 to the top with coal and ore, stratum super stratum, until it be full ; and so 

 setting fire to the bottom they let it bum till the coal be wasted, and then re- 

 new the kilns with fresh ore and coal, in the same manner as before. This is 

 done without fusion of the metal, and serves to consume the more drossy parts 

 of the ore, and to make it friable, supplying the beating and washing which are 

 used for other metals. — From hence it is carried to the furnaces, which are 

 built of brick or stone, about 24 feet square on the outside, and near 30 feet in 

 height; within not above 8 or 10 feet over, where it is widest, which is about 

 the middle ; the top and bottom having a narrower compass, much like the 

 shape of an egg. 



Behind the furnace are placed two huge pair of bellows, whose noses meet at 

 ^ little hole near the bottom. These are compressed together by certain but- 



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