• 256 
Iron, 
converging towards the anvil, and serving to facilitate the 
operation of moving the cake during the work next to be 
described. See the plan and elevation traced, Fig. 10. 
The workman being seated before his hammer, takes 
the cake with two small pair of tongs, and gives it a con- 
tinual circular motion : during this commencement of 
the work, he hammers it only on the edge, after which he 
ignites it, he again carries it to the same hammer, first 
wetting the edge of the plates to diminish the heat which 
would only incommode him. By this second forging, 
he carries his stroke nearer to the centre still continuing 
the circular motion. By repeating the same operation as 
far as for eight times, continually approaching the cen- 
tre, the edge rises every time, and the assemblage of plates 
become more and more hollow. Accordingly, as this 
figure encreases, he finds it necessary to change his tongs 
for others, which differs from the first in the elevation of 
one of the jaws, and the extremity of the handle, Fig. 5, 
After seven or eight ignitions, he carries the cake to a 
kind of anvil, the form of a figure 6, where he holds it 
with small tongs, Fig. 7, in order to complete the sides, 
which is done by the workmen hammering in succession ; 
the hammer of the assistant being heavy and double-hand- 
ed, when this is upon two at once. It is speedily done, 
and followed by another nearly similar on the bottom of 
the vessel, by a second hammer, placed near the first, 
striking on a kind of square anvil. Young girls, after- 
wards, are employed in scraping the bottom with an iron 
rod, Fig. 9. One foot and a half in length, terminating 
at one of its ends in a flattened small termination of steel. 
After this is done, the workman takes three vessels, one 
after the other, and presents them under a third hammer, 
placed near the two first, and moved like them by the 
same arbor, which carries a small tripping wheel, moved 
by water. The vessel is placed on the anvil, so that the 
