The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1876-04-22

: their surfaces clean. This simple process
is the same one by which ordinary German
| playing marbles are made, or to speak more
accurately, make each other. The soft
stone being broken into small blocks with
hammer, are poured into revolving hol-
| low cylinder, in which the little cubes of
stone soon transform each other in spheres.
! From the casting room we pass into the
MAIN BUILDING,
which contains the furnaces or cupolas, and
covers the moulding floor. This room con-
tains two furnaces, or, as they are technic-
ally but enormously called, cupolas (since
the arch or top of the furnace is strictly
speaking the cupola), one of ten, the other
of six tons capacity, both driven by an i'm
| proved Alden fan. AS protection against
accident from fire, the building rests upon
a granite foundation, four and half feet
! in height; underneath it flows Factory Run,
| which is restrained from troublesome intru-
sion during its festive moods, by solid
arch or culvert of granite, in the construc-
! eioh VI "hiSu oGo pclCH VI L Oib
/ fire, water and time proof granite were
consumed.
1t hardly seems necessary to attempt the
description of a process so familiar as
moulding and casting. 1t is at least
SOLDERING process, since no intoxication re-
suits from the frequent use of "hasks,"
although numerous instances have occurred
in which founders have, by the explosion
of them, been seriously and fatally injured.
! The inventive or initiative urchin, given to
the use of his foot as the mould wherein
to turn and fashion the traditional and
immemoral "mud pe," suggests to my
mind the process of moulding. Take the
happy youngsters foot off, or, what he
would less painfully spare, his shoe. For
the purpose in view, suppose it to be of
solid wood, which many mothers often
wish their boys shoes were. Divide the
wooden shoe by a line of division run on
the sole Of it from heel to toe. Take one
half of your flask (wooden), fill it solidly
with loan or fine sand, and laying your
pattern shoe on its side upon the nicely
struck surface of the sand, sprinkle it over
nicely with powdered charcoal. Now place
the upper half of your moulding box on
top of box No. /, and while you hold
clothes pin or any other curiosity from the
boys pocket against the shoe, pack it
tightly around with moistened sand. Then
! lifting the upper half of the flask off care
fully, turn it bottom upwards. Extract
from each half box the half shoe, draw
{ out the pin to make a gate through which
to pour your molten iron, and after having
retouched your mould with small trowel,
to give it good finish, and introduced and
reintroduced the half pattern some half
dozen times, until the impression is firm
aud perfect, and not forgetting to dust the
surface of your mould with charcoal dust,
which will give smooth surface to your
casting, replace the top box on the lower
one, and if you have been careful, you will
have made good mould for solid iron
shoe. This homely illustration must suffice
upon the subject of making moulds for
solid objects, hollow ones being provided
with what are called cores, around which
the molten liquid is poured, and which,
being extracted after the metal has cooled
in the mould, leaves the hollow casting
therein. While on the subject of cores
we may as we'll look into the
CORE OVEN,
tight closet 10x20 feet, in which the cores,
after being made of moist sand, with a
portion of ordinary flour mixed with it,
and being coated with pulverized charcoal
and treated to sickening dose of molasses
and water, are placed in the oven to dry
for use. Out of the close core oven, into
the
OPEN FLASK SHED,
under which unenclosed roof covering a
space S5x90 feet, and in yard to the rear
of it, enclosing space of one hundred feet
square, is to be found every imaginable
size of moulders' boxes, or, technically
speaking, "hasks.'
Beyond this, stands neat and substan-
tial stable, from which three sleek and
we'll fed animals, six mornings in the week,
emerge to earn their daily food.
Crossing the street, we peep into the
last building of the establishment, to
find it containing pillow castings, having
two floors 36A36 feet, and used exclusively
for this purpose.
Having thus hastily traversed the differ
ent buildings of the foundry up sThe TIol-
low" we retrace our steps down the hill,
and return to
THE WAREHOUSE AND sALEsRooM.
This store house 3sx50 feet, and located
on the main street of the town, was en-
} larged to its present size in 1870. On the
first floor are the office and salesroom, the
J second floor being devoted to the sheet iron
workers and manufacture of tin-ware In
, these ware-rooms are exhibited the differ
ent varieties, styles and patterns of heat
ing and cook stoves, ranges and heaters
manufactured by the firm. Here are seen,
7 and which are more particularly displayed
, for the retail trade, various popular styles
of stoves, such as the celebrated Emer-
r aid - Cook, the "Virgiua," the "Virgin