016r - - - - - Melting soft iron
It is a common opinion that once iron has been melted, it cannot be remelted because they only heat it in small forges, in which it only catches fire. Alchemists are confident they can melt it with realgar, lead or orpiment. But without all that, some have found a way to melt not only brittle iron, like that used for iron pots, but also soft iron such as pig or ingot iron, which are the most difficult ones to work with. For this result they make a furnace that is one pan and a half wide and two pans deep, and the tuelle, which is the barrel marked A where the bellows’ pipes fit, has to be placed midway through the depth of the furnace so that there is one pan of the furnace opening on the tuelle and one pan under it.
at left top margin
Each square pan of the furnace’s opening can hold one quintal and a half, and the round furnace pan can hold two quintals.
Figure at left middle margin
at right middle margin
The iron smiths, to make the iron run, at the opening of the forge, place two or three handfuls of wallwort in the direction they want to make the cast iron run, and that makes the iron wonderfully ductile and flowy.
It is necessary that the tuelle is inserted through to the middle of the furnace opening, which is a main clue for the secret because the wind will hit the edge and the wall, which makes up the center of the furnace and in that manner, it spreads equally everywhere, as well as above, like flames in a reverberatory oven, and thus heats much more; because if the wind hits the melted or ready to be melted matter perpendicularly, it would cool it down and it would stop it from running and melting. It is also necessary for the bellows to be activated by jumps and by the water stream as happens at forges, because in this way, bellows are activated with great precision and great speed, which the strength of workers could not duplicate. As you can see, the wall is thus raised up and the furnace is laid on the ground, at the edge of which you dig a pit, like at other forges. In order to put the moulds you want to cast inside, and for this purpose, you unstop the opening that you made at the bottom of the furnace to allow the melted matter to flow. You will be able to melt two quintals of iron each time and, in order to do this, you will choose the biggest charcoal you will find and put a measure of it at the bottom on the surface area of the furnace and pile up from the bottom to the top of the wall, in the shape of an upside down V.
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Some make a mould of the same size as the piece, then immerse it, then beat a soft iron piece cut to size, and when this bit is red hot, they beat it into the mould and round it out with a large file. These bullets are thought to be stronger than the melted ones which, being made of hard iron, are more prone to break.
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