254 
Iron . 
and the bar itself, he fashions a small neck to facilitate its 
separation. In this manner, the workman continues to 
forge the plate on both its faces as long as the heat allows, 
after which he carries the bar to the anvil, and applies a 
cold chissel to the neck, upon which his assistant strikes 
in order to separate the plate from the bar. This last is 
then returned to the fire, in order to continue the operation 
in making a second plate. Sometimes, but this is only 
when the plates are small, the workmen make three at 
once. 
When a sufficient number of plates has been thus fabri- 
cated, as they are of different sizes, namely, from three 1 
or four inches diameter to a foot, the workman disposes 
them in parcels, of which each contains four of equal di- 
mensions, and then carries one of them to the hearth of 
the furnace, where the assistant takes them in the large 
tongs, Fig. 1, PI. VI, and puts them into the fire, taking 
care to change their position often ; and when the brass is 
red hot, the master workman, who holds a small pair of 
tongs in each hand, carries it under the tilting hammer, 
after having spread charcoal powder between the plates, 
to prevent their welding together. The two pair of small I. 
tongs have the form of Fig. 2 and are used to give a cir- 
cular motion to the parcel, and to keep it on the anvil. ! 
When he has finished hammering it, he changes the or- 
der of the four plates, and in making this change, he is 
careful to take notice whether any of them have cracked ; 
and where he perceives any crack, he applies the cold 
chisel, or a wedge to the place on which the assistant gives 
a blow. 
After having changed the situation of the plates in such 
a manner that the two outside plates become the interior 
ones, he places this parcel on the hearth, and takes ano- 
ther set, which the assistant has caused to be heated, and 
-lie subjects this to the same operation of the hammer. In 
