THE ART OF FOUNDING IN BRASS, COPPER AND BRONZE. 409 

 THE ART OF FOUNDING IN BRASS, COPPER AND BRONZE.* 



BY EDWARD TUCK. 



The origin of the art of founding can only be a matter of speculation, extend- 

 ing as it does so far back in the past history of the race, a history to a very large 

 extent wrapped in obscurity and mystery. But the marvelous results of the va- 

 rious operations and the immense importance they have to mankind, have caused 

 many in ancient times to assert that the art was communicated to man by the 

 gods. Some, and with a larger share of truth, consider that man, finding by ac- 

 cident that certain minerals by the force of fire yielded a metal, repeated the ex- 

 periment on other minerals, finding out other metals, and thus ultimately all the 

 differing forms in which they exist in the earth. As late as 1762 a large mass of 

 mixed metals, composed of copper, iron, tin, silver, was melted out of the earth 

 during the conflagration of a wood accidentally set on fire, and various ancient 

 historians speak of metals having been melted out of the earth during the burning 

 of woods in the Alps and Pyrenees. 



Copper is occasionally found in nature in a metallic state so pure as to be 

 used for manufacturing purposes, either for making articles of copper or alloys. 

 There are examples of this in the mines of Lake Superior in North America 

 where large masses of copper have been found weighing several tons. It may 

 therefore, be considered quite possible that quantities of copper were found in 

 the earth in the olden time, so that the ancients could possess the metal without 

 the necessity of smelting. But, however, this fact must be stated, that where a 

 mass of copper is found embedded in the earth at any depth it would require a 

 greater amount of skill and mechanical knowledge to get this into working opera- 

 tions than to smelt the ore. Such a mass could not be broken up like stone, but 

 must be cut, and therefore would require tools of particular hardness, and other 

 mechanical appliances, to obtain which requires a greater and more refined 

 knowledge of metallurgy than smelting copper fr.om the ore. 



But whatever or wherever may have been the origin of the art, it is quite 

 certain that it originated at the very earliest period of man's history and has gone 

 down with him along the stream of time to this age. It has had, as all arts have 

 had in varying ages and nations, its rise and decline, which make the investiga- 

 tion of its history a somewhat difficult task. Still, by the aid of researches which 

 have been made amongst the ruins and relics of past buried ages, we have been 

 able to gather together some facts which help us to form something like a history 

 of the art, very imperfect in many points, yet enabling us to form some idea of 

 the methods of working and the means by which certain results which are mat- 

 ters of wonder to us even now were accomplished. 



We have, it is true, in these modern days advanced far, very far, in the me- 

 tallic arts; but in the great facts and principles we are no farther than the men of 



* A summary of the second prize essay of the Worshipful Company of Founders, 1880-81. 



