Ki upp’s Steel Works at Essen. 199 
to the floor of the foundry, assisted by a companion, whose 
tongs, placed under his own, give him the fulcrum needed 
to hoist the weight quite out of the furnace. No teeming 
hole is used, as the pots have already been thoroughly 
cleansed from fuel, and by this means less heat is lost before 
pouring out the metal. Two other men then seize the 
crucible with a double bearer, and carry it to the nearest 
trough, into which they empty it, and immediately throw 
it down a spout into a chamber below the foundry. Were 
the empty pots to be left on the floor, they would soon 
accumulate and interrupt the free circulation which is abso- 
lutely necessary for the management of such quantities of 
molten metal. They are, at any rate, too much weakened 
by the intense heat to be of any further use, and I saw 
some of them even give way as they were being lifted from 
the furnace. No covers are taken off, but the metal is 
poured out through a hole in the upper edge o1 the pot. 
The “commanding engineer” watches his time and gives 
the word to the next set of gangs at such a moment as 
will enable them to be ready with their crucibles just as 
the previous ones are nearly all emptied, without losing any 
heat by over-hurry in poking out the fuel. The molten 
metal must not be permitted to cease flowing in a con- 
tinuous stream through the troughs into the reservoir, and 
thence into the mould, or the cast will be spoilt. The ope- 
ration is carried on in the same manner till all the crucibles, 
from the most remote to the nearest, have discharged their 
contents. The cast is then allowed to cool until it has 
shrunk sufficiently to be turned out of the mould, when it 
is surrounded with hot cinders, and thus kept at a cherry 
heat till wanted for forging. As cool weather is selected 
for the largest castings, while it may not be convenient to 
forge them at the time, it sometimes happens that these 
huge masses lie in their warm beds for as much as three 
months, hot ashes being constantly supplied from furnaces 
at work. I believe this precaution has not been generally 
adopted in England. It would certainly appear easier to 
let down a large mass of metal to a uniform temperature 
than to attain the same uniformity by raising the heat in 
any manner with which I am acquainted that is suitable to 
castings of many tons weight. Nothing can be more 
animated and picturesque than the scene at a great casting, 
but the endurance of the men seems to be severely tested. 
It has happened that some of them have shaken their 
heads about undergoing so terrible an “ordeal by fire” 
