Iron . 
257 
! hammer, which is pointed at its striking extremity, enters 
into its cavity. The workman holds the vessel, and shifts 
its position with his hands and knees. Every stroke 
| of the hammer leaves a slight cavity of the size of a pea, 
which forms different designs, according to the motion 
which the workman gives to the vessel. These outlines 
I are not made for the sake of beauty, but to give strength 
and firmness to the vessel by hammer hardening it. The 
young girls, afterwards, take the vessels and scrape the 
interior sides, as was done with the bottom ; and lastly, 
: the workmen, on two kinds of anvils, the one plain and 
circular for the bottom, and the other semi evlindric for 
the sides, completes their figure with a wooden mallet. 
Small cracks sometimes appear in the vessel, which the 
workman close, and the matter is suffered to cool ; after 
which, the cake, which now has the form of a tuencated 
cone, is carried against a piece of iron bended two ways. 
Fig. 8, and drove into the wooden block, which supports 
the gudgeon of the arbor of the hammers. This doubly re- 
curved iron serves to retain the cake which enters under 
it, and by that means allows the small tongs, Fig. 7, to 
raise up the edges of the two great plates, which, in part, 
covered the seven small ones. This being done, the ves= 
sels, or hammered pieces, are taken out from within each 
other. The first is always perforated on account of the 
immediate purchase of the hammer, and that of the air, 
which partly converted into scales, fall out by the imme- 
diate action of the hammer. As these vessels, w hen taken 
out, are more or less bended, the assistant sets them to 
right by a few strokes of the hammer, after which the 
master workman cuts their edges with the shears. 
Cold Hammering and finishing .— After the vessels are 
cut round, they are delivered to another workman, who 
takes them to his separate shop to finish. His first ope- 
ration is to set the conical surface fair by means of a small 
K K 
