Cape Breton's Magazine

with the mold prepared, the furnace charged and the ladle heated • the Ironraelter takes a hammer and bangs it on the metal door separating the foundry from the fur? nace room • signalling everyone to run to his position for the pour. He takes up a rod and jabs at the taphole in the breast of the furnace, poking again and again un? til he breaks through the fireclay and molten iron comes pouring down the sluice in? to the ladle. The first tap is made about 1/2 hour after the wind goes on. Iron is run off, the taphole is closed off with a fireclay batt, while the coke drops and burns and then the next charge melts. As space is made, men above are throwing in the next charge. The wind now roars up through the furnace. Each tap is 15 minutes apart. The iron in the ladle is watched closely for color|they don't want it to get dull, which means cooling that might affect the finished cannon* Once the tapping is finished, the crane is brought into position and raises the almost 7000 pounds of metal in the ladle, taking it from the furnace to the mold. Men surround the mold, watching for leaks. Men are on the mold, ready to churn down through the risers* They hold heated rods. The ladle is tipped and the pour begins • red hot iron going down into the head, through the gate and guides into the cannon mold, surrounding the barrel core inside. Smoke shoots up out of the risers. A special vent off the main barrel core is pulled and a man stands ready to light the gases that pour out and keep it burning throughout the pour. Rods dipped in molten iron are carried a- round the mold, lighting the gases escaping at the seara of the Cope and Drag* The big ladle is poured* The cannon is topped up with small ladles of iron down through the risers, thoroughly churned. Finally, the head into which the iron was poured is itself sealed up with sand and packed. There is no waste. Small molds for parts needed in the mines are waiting and any extra iron is shifted to thera and poured.