A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



Part rendered more soft and malleable ; otherwise if 

 it should be put into the Furnace as it comes out of 

 the Earth, it would not melt but come away whole. 

 Care also must be taken that it be not over much 

 burned, for then it will loop, i.e. melt and run 

 together in a Mass. After it is burnt they beat it 

 into small pieces on the Rost-Hearth as the Germans 

 call it w"" an Iron Sledge or large Hammer, and then 

 cast it into the Furnace (which is before charged with 

 a certain Quantity of Charcole and Turf) and with it 

 a small Quantity of Limestone and old Cinders ; these 

 all run together into a hard Cake or Lump which is 

 sustained by the Fashion of the Furnace, through the 

 Bottom of which, the Metal as it melts by the 

 Violence of the Blast, trickles down into the Hearth 

 or Receiver, where there is a Passage open much like 

 the Mouth of an Oven, by which they clear away the 

 Scum and Dross, which they always take off from the 

 melted Iron before they let it run. 



When they find the Fuel to have subsided some- 

 thing more than a Yard (which they prove by an Iron 

 Gauge or Instrument much like a Flail) which is in 

 the Space of about an Hour, they fill the Furnace 

 again. Their Charging here consists of a certain 

 Quantity of very hard black Turf (the best in its Kind 

 of any perhaps in England which is dug up in Arnset 

 Moss, about half a Mile from them) and Charcoal, 

 upon which they throw Four Hundred Weight of 

 burnt Ore of different Sorts and Goodness, together 

 with a lo"" or 1 2"" Part as much Slaken as the Ger- 

 mans call them, or old Cinders w'='' they here call 

 Forest Cinders, and the same Quantity of Limestone 

 beaten into small Pieces, to make it melt freely and 

 cast the Cinders. We find that in Hungary they not 

 only mix its own Cinders in melting their several 

 Sorts of Ore, but also a certain Quantity of Stone, 

 generally Pyrites : and a late Author " informs us that 

 the French in their Iron Furnaces make use of a Sort 

 of Sand Stone w''' they call Flux Stone, which they 

 s.iy not only helps the Fusion, and separates the 

 metalick fi-om the earthy Particles, but that the vitri- 

 fied Sand, being a liquid Mass of Fire, keeps in a 

 State of Agitation the finer Grains of Sand and the 

 saline and earthy Particles, which after Ignition fix 

 into a consistent Body. And this they think prefer- 

 able to Lime Stone which in their Opinion serves 

 only as a Crust or covering to reverberate the Heat, 

 and to make it act with more Force inwardly on the 

 Ore which is mixed with the Coals : But if the longest 

 and largest Experience may be allowed as Judge, we 

 shall find Limestone pronounced the most proper 

 Assistant in melting Iron Ore : for the Swedes who 

 (notwithstanding the great Quantities we make) do 

 yet furnish us with near two thirds of the Iron 

 wrought up anJ consumed in the Kingdom, besides 

 the v.i5t Quantity they export to other Parts of the 

 World, have always used it, and find it so absolutely 

 necessary that the Mine will not run to so good 

 Advantage without it. 



They have found here by Experience that Turf 

 which is here both very good and very cheap, doth not 

 only spare Char Coal, but makes better Iron than Char- 

 coal alone: upon which Account it is that the Iron made 

 at the Furnace is much preferable to that which was made 

 some years since at Milthorpe in this Neighbourhood, 

 where Charcoal was the only Fuel they made Use of. 



-* "Sature Display' d, vol. iii, dial, xxvi, pp. 330, 



331, 332- 



362 



The Water does not here blow the Fire by a Pair 

 of Philosophical Bellows, as at the Brass Works of 

 Tivoli, near Rome : but behind the Furnace are 

 placed two huge Pair of Bellows each 7J Yards long, 

 and \\ Yard broad, whose Noses meet at a little Hole 

 near the Bottom of the Furnace. These Bellows are 

 compressed together by certain Buttons placed in the 

 Axis of a very large Wheel, which is turned about by 

 Water in the Manner of an Overshot Mill. As soon 

 as these Buttons are slid off, the Bellows are raised 

 again by the Counterpoise of Weights, whereby they 

 are made to play alternately, the one giving their 

 Blast all the Time the other is rising. The Axis of 

 this Wheel is 12 Yards long, and its Diameter is 

 ten Yards within the Rim ; so that allowing for the 

 Thickness of the Rim, and the Depth of the Buckets, 

 it will, I think, be found to exceed those at the great 

 Copper Mines in Sweden whose Circumference accord- 

 ing to Naucleus is but about one Hundred Foot ; and 

 to be much about the Size of that observed by 

 Dr. Brown a considerable Depth in one of the 

 Hungarian Mines, which being turned about by the 

 Fall of a subterraneous Torrent moved Engines which 

 pumped out the Waters from the Bottom of the Mine 

 into a Cavity wherein this Wheel (whose Diameter is 

 I 2 Yards) is placed, whence it runs out at the Foot of 

 the Mountain ; but it will be found to fall short of 

 the Size of that mentioned by Dr. Leopold, the 

 Diameter of which he says was forty eight Foot, and 

 the Machien it moves draws up Buckets full 800 

 Foot. 



When the Furnace is fit to run, as they term it, 

 which is once in about 1 2 Hours, they make a long 

 Furrow through the Middle of a level Bed of Sand 

 directly before the Mouth thereof, which they call the 

 Sow, and out of it on each Side eleaven or twelve 

 smaller for the Pigs, and all these they make greater 

 or lesser according to the Quantity of their Metal 

 which is then nothing but a Torrent of liquid Fire ; 

 made so very fluid by the Violence of the Heat, that 

 when it is let out of the Receiver or Hearth, by 

 breaking a Lump of Clay out of a Hole at the Bottom 

 thereof, with a long Iron Poker, it not only runs to 

 the utmost Distance of the Furrows, but stands boil- 

 ing in them for a considerable Time. Upon the 

 Extinction of the Fire the Redness goes off and the 

 metallick Particles coalesce and subside one upon 

 another, and it begins to look blackish at the Top ; 

 then they break the Sow and Pigs off from one 

 another ; and the Sow into the same Lengths with 

 the Piggs, which is now done with ease ; whereas if 

 let alone till they were quite cold, the doing of it 

 would be much more difficult. This Running of the 

 Iron calls to my Mind what is said by Mons. le Grand 

 and others about the Invention of Metals by Tubal 

 Cain : for he, they say, observing Iron to run from a 

 burning Mountain, and to grow hard in what Form 

 it happened to meet with a Mould, took the Hint 

 thereby to contrive the casting of Metals. 



The Hearth grows wider by using, so that their 

 Runnings are much larger at the latter End than at 

 the Beginning : for the Master Founder here told me 

 on the 1 2* of June 1717 that they then ran ab' Six- 

 teen or Seventeen Hundred Weight at a Time, and in 

 the Year 1 721, he told my Brother they then ran 

 twenty two Hundred Weight. When they Cast 

 Bacb for Chimneys, Rollers for Gardens, Pots or Pans 

 Sec*, they make Moulds of fine Sand, into which they 

 pour the liquid Metal with great Ladles, as they do 



