26Q 
Lead. 
Then take a plate of copper, about the size of a trench- 
er, which must be made with a hollowness in the middle, 
about three inches compass, within which must be bored 
about 40 holes according to the size of the shot which you 
intend to cast : the hollow bottom should be thin ; but 
the thicker the brim, the better it will retain the heat. 
Place this plate on a frame of iron, over a tube or vessel 
of water, about four inches from the water, and spread 
burning coals on the plate, to keep the lead melted upon 
it ; then take some lead and pour it gently on the coals on 
the plate, and it will make its way through the holes into 
4he water, and form itself into shot ; do thus till all your 
lead is run through the holes of the plate, taking care, by 
keeping your coals alive, that the lead does not cool, and 
so stop up the holes. 
While you are casting in this manner, another person 
with another ladle may catch some of the shot, placing 
the ladle four or five inches underneath the plate in the 
water, by which means you will see if they are defective, 
and rectify them. Your chief care is to keep the lead in 
a just degree of heat, that it shall be not so cold as to stop 
up the holes in your plate, nor so hot as to cause the shot 
to crack ; to remedy the heat, you must refrain working 
till it is of a proper coolness ; and to remedy the coolness 
of your lead and plate, you must blow your fire ; observ- 
ing, that the cooler your lead is, the larger will be your 
shot ; as, the hotter it is, the smaller they will be. 
After you have done casting, take them out of the wa- 
ter, and dry them over the fire with a gentle heat, stirring 
them continually that they do not melt ; when dry, you 
are to separate the great shot from the small, by the help 
of a sieve made for that purpose, according to their seve- 
ral sizes. But those who would have very large shot, 
make the lead trickle with a stick out of the ladle into the 
water, without the plate. If it stops on the plate, and yet 
