Making and Knowing
A minimal edition of BnF Ms Fr 640

[TOC] | [diplomatic]

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Founder

Kitchen pots are made well, in order not to give a bad taste to the meat, with the same metal the bells are made of. It is true that founablesders mix in more latten to make them yellower, in order to sell them better. But the latten by itself, &simply by touching it, is stinking & bad smelling.

Latten does not lose, or very slightly, its calamine in an air furnace when it is melted in a crucible, nor does it lose it in a wood furnace, but it does in a bellows furnace because bellows give intense flames.

Air furnace

It is necessary that the mouth be narrower than the bottom. And it is enough if the crucible can enter in it, & if there is enough space to remove & take it with pincers.

Glassmakers’ glass

It is said that in Lorraine & Flanders linking glass is made of fern ashes & pebbles. First they blow up a long still that another worker breaks off and cuts vertically with big shears. Then this long still expands by being placed on a stone or large platine in a furnace slightly colder than one for melting. Furthermore, they flatten it by rolling over it a big & long iron stick. Then they take it out of the annealing furnace. Similarly, they make some in England that are quite beautiful. Close to Rouen in France, flat glass is made with some sel de saltworth & pebbles and is whiter & softer than the Lorraine one, because it can be melted with a candle, unlike the Lorraine one. This flat glass is blown up in a long still —— the end of which someone else cuts and blows up whilst turning it, then flattens it using a plane which is on the ground, A and then reheats it. Thus the middle of the still, where it began, always stays the same.

at left middle margin

The glass, when wet, can be broken again with the flame of a candle, but not as precisely as with hot iron.