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MINUTES OF PEOCEEDINGS OF 
Art. 49. No gun is to be cast without the officer charged with the 
manufacture of metal castings being present; he will make a preliminary 
inspection of the preparatory arrangements, and will receive a report of the 
state and circumstances of the fusion from the government foreman. The 
other officers will be present at the casting if the director thinks fit. 
Art. 50. The greatest care will be taken that the furnace contains stuff 
enough to cast the piece, and to give the proper length to the dead-head. 
Art. 51. When the product of several furnaces is to be united in one 
casting, all the furnaces are to be unstopped at the same moment, so that 
the melted metal may become amalgamated in the one canal through which 
it must pass before entering the mould. 
At the same time, the unstopping is to be made only when the whole of 
the furnaces have acquired a sufficiently high temperature. 
Art. 52. Every piece of which the metal shall bubble ( bouillonnera ) 
after the casting, shall be rejected, if, after the breaking off the mould, the 
honeycombing shall be found anywhere but in the dead-head. 
The mould is to be removed in not less than twenty-four hours after the 
casting; the piece still hot will be placed under shelter from the rain. 
Art. 53. Whenever a gun is cast, it will receive a number inscribed in 
the registry of manufactures; this number, which will belong to the piece 
•when finished, will be marked on the cascable and dead-head on the removal 
of the mould, even if the piece should have failed in casting. On this 
account, an uninterrupted series of numbers, which will recommence with 
each year, will be established in every foundry for every gun of the same 
nature. 
Art. 54. When the mould has been removed, every gun will be scraped 
with the graver, to remove any sand which may adhere to it, as well as the 
seams, knobs, and other irregularities which alter the exterior form. 
The gun will then be examined, and only passed to be finished in case 
its defects are within the limits of toleration. 
Art. 55. After this examination the dead-head will be cut off, and the 
operations of centering, boring, and turning will be proceeded with. 
The centering of the gun will be made in relation to its exterior surface, 
by making it turn on the beginning of the first reinforce, and on the end of 
the chase, and turning a centre on the cascable. 
Art. 56. After the boring, and when it has been established that the 
dimensions come within the regulated limits, the swell of the muzzle will be 
turned. Account must be taken in this operation of the diameter of the 
base-ring of the breech, and of the eccentricity in the vertical plane of fire.i 
The turning of this part will be so performed as to have the angle of the 
line of metal constant . 
The other operations of finishing the gun will then be proceeded with ; 
last of all the vent will be drilled; its exterior orifice must be in the vertical 
plane. 
Art. 57. There will be engraved on the breech, following its contour at 
equal distance from the base-ring and cascable,— 
(1) The number of the piece. 
(2) Designation of the calibre. 
(3) Weight in kilogrammes. 
