3-017-262 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

A visit to Penn's Marine Engine Factory, at Greenwich: casting a great cylinder for a marine steam-engine, 1865. Illustration representing '...the molten metal being poured into the mould ...the mass of metal, while of immense magnitude, has to be cast with all the exactness and perfection that can be given to the smallest castings...The iron...is melted in several cupolas... and the molten iron runs through small canals into the foundry, where they empty themselves into two immense cauldrons...The pouring so large a mass of metal equally into the mould is a most important matter, and is executed by the principal founder, for irregularity or too quickly running the metal would not only spoil the casting, but might endanger the lives of those present. The operation...requires from twenty to thirty tons of iron to fill the mould...The scene during the few minutes occupied in filling the mould is particularly fine in effect; the hitherto dark foundry being suddenly lit up with the glare of the rivers of liquid iron running over the lips of the cauldrons... the bright glow of the molten iron, almost white in its intense heat, lights up the features and forms of the workmen and numerous visitors in a wondrous manner'. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.