Miscellaneous Intelligence. 299 
The Fort Pitt Foundry stands on the Alleghany river, testing on made 
land. As guns are cast vertically, with the muzzle up, the first thing to 
be done is to sink a pit, as deep as the intended gun is long. In this in- 
stance the requisite depth would carry the bottom of the pit below the 
water line and water would flow in. A wrought iron tank fills up there- 
fore half the height of the pit: and this is lined with a layer of brick 9 
inches thick, which is continued to the top. A circular pit 30 feet deep 
and 14 feet in diameter is thus made. Within this the flask, or support 
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_the furnaces are constructed on the reverberatory plan, the hearth in- 
clining toward the fire. They are known as air furnaces, and depend on 
draft entirely. They were charged cold with second fusion Bloomfield 
Pig iron; No. 4 receiving 39 tons, No. 5 and No. 6, 234 tons each. No. 
3 was charged with 18 tons and held as reserve. The fires were lighted 
iron in the furnaces was tested from time to time to ascertain when it 
Teached the tight point. At 12%24™, the three furnaces were tapped 
simultaneously. The metal was conducted in runners to a pool near the 
Pit, from the side of which, near the bottom, it passed in two runners to 
® gun mould, entering, not directly, but through side channels or gates, 
having branch gates inclined upward toward the axis, at intervals of 12 
Inches. The scene just at this time was grand. Three streams of liquid 
