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Founding of doux iron

Most people consider that iron, once melted,
cannot be melted again because they only heat it in small
forges, in which it only becomes red-hot. Alchemists
undertake to melt it with realgar or lead or mixed
orpiment. But without all that, some have found a way to
the melt not only brittle iron, such as the kind used
for iron pots, but also douls iron such
as d that of pigs & ingots, which is the most
difficult kind. And to this effect they make a furnace in this
manner which has a width of one pan & a half &
one pan & a half of a depth of two
pans. And the tuelle, which is the barrel
through marked A through which the bellows' pipes enter, has
to be placed in the middle of the depth of the furnace such
that there is one pan of the mouth of the
furnace above the tuelle & one
pan underneath.


Each pan of the mouth of the square furnace
contains one & a half quintal, & the
pan of the round furnace holds two
quintals.



The miners, to make the iron run, put at the mouth of
the melt, two or three handfuls of
wallwort when they want to make the melt run, and
this renders the iron wonderfully ductile and flowing.



It is also necessary that the tuelle enters through to the
middle of the mouth of thefurnace, which is a principal part of
the secret because the wind will hit the edge & the wall which makes
up the belly of the furnace & by such means, it spreads
equally everywhere & above, like the flame in a reverberatory
furnace, & by such means heats much more; for if the wind were
to hit directly from above, the substance which is melted or ready to be
melted, it would cool it down & prevent it from running &
melting. It is also necessary for the bellows to be driven by the
falling & running of water as in forges, because in
this manner, the bellows run with measure & compass & with great
speed, which the strength of workers could d not
do. Therefore one raises the wall as you see & the furnace
on the surface of the ground at the edge of which you make a channel as
with other founding, to put the molds of that which you want to
cast & to do this, you unstop the opening that you had made at the
bottom of the furnace to make the melted substance run. You
will be able to melt two quintals of iron each time and
to do this, you will choose the biggest charcoal you
can find & put a load of it at the bottom, on the plane and surface
of the furnace & with the bottom piling up as if
to a point, up to the top of the wall




Some make a mould of the calibre of the piece, & temper it,
then beat a doulx iron piece cut to size, & when
this piece is very red, they beat it into the mold & round
it off with a large file, considering these balls to be
stronger than the melted ones which, being brittle, are more subject to
breaking.


