" The fragments 



On Smelting Copper in Japan. 347 



# 



ly very important that at the time of smelting it be perfectly pu- 

 rified. Zinc is only used as an alloy in making mirrors and 

 warming stoves and bells ; if it is combined in the copper, that 

 metal will not stick to the molds, but when taken out, the en- 

 gravings and ornaments will be distinct and clean. 



Sec. XII. Of the washing' and rinsing 

 of copper taken from the refining furnace which adhere to the 

 scoria, and that from the crucible, are beaten in a mortar, sifted 

 and then rinsed in water in order to obtain the copper. 



11 Written by Mas'tadzuna (or Sou ten-boii) a pupil of Sumi- 

 tomo Zhiyusai in Raukw#»" 



When Thunbcrg accompanied the Dutch embassy to Yedo in 

 1776, the party after much intreaty were allowed to see the ope- 

 ration of casting the copper bars at Ohosaka, which he thus de- 

 scribes. We introduce it as the testimony of an eye-witness to 



.corroborate the native account. 



" The operation of smelting of copper was one day performed 

 particularly for us, and merely on purpose that we might see it, 

 in consequence of the importunate intreaties both of our chief 

 and our conductors. This was done with much greater simpli- 

 city than I had imagined. The smelting hut was from twenty to 

 twenty-four feet wide, and a wall like a niche was built up, with 

 a chimney on one side of it. At the bottom of this, and level 

 with the floor, was a hearth, in which the ore, by the assistance 

 of a hand- bellows, had been smelted before our arrival. Direct- 

 ly opposite, on the ground, which was not floored, was dug a hole 

 of an oblong form, and about twelve inches deep. Across this 

 were laid ten square iron bars, barely the breadth of a finger 

 asunder, and all of them with one of their edges upwards. Over 

 these was expanded a piece of sail-cloth, which was pressed down 

 between the bars. Upon this was afterwards poured cold water, 

 which stood about two inches above the cloth. The smelted ore 

 was then taken up out of the hearth, with iron ladles, and pour- 

 ed into the above described mold, so that ten or eleven bars, six 

 inches long, were cast each time. As soon as these were taken 

 0l *t, the fusion was continued, and the water now and then 

 changed. That the copper was thus cast in water, was not known 

 before in Europe, nor that the Japanese copper hence acquires 

 "s high color and splendor. At the same time 1 had the good 

 fortune to receive, through the influence of my friends the inter- 

 preters, a present of a box, in which was packed up, not only 

 Pure copper cast in the abovementioned manner, but also speci- 

 mens taken from every process that it had gone through, such as 

 the crude pyrites with its matrix, the produce of the roasting, 

 a nd of the first and second smelting. * * * . 



"After this we saw a quantity of cast copper, not only in the 

 abovementioned form of bars, as it is sold to the Dutch and Chi- 



