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Book VIII: Extracting Metals | Earth

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BOOK VIII.
287
the cam-shaft ; in this case the cams on both sides raise the stamps, which
either both crush dry or wet ore, or else the one set crushes dry ore and the
other set wet ore, just as circumstances require the one or the other ;
further, when the one set is raised and the iron clavises in them are fixed
into openings in the first cross-beam, the other set alone crushes the ore.
Broken rock or stones, or the coarse or fine sand, are removed from
the mortar of this machine and heaped up, as is also done with the same
materials when raked out of the dump near the mine. They are thrown
by a workman into a box, which is open on the top and the front, and is three
feet long and nearly a foot and a half wide. Its sides are sloping and made
of planks, but its bottom is made of iron wire netting, and fastened with
wire to two iron rods, which are fixed to the two side planks. This bottom
has openings, through which broken rock of the size of a hazel nut cannot
pass ; the pieces which are too large to pass through are removed by the
workman, who again places them under stamps, while those which have
passed through, together with the coarse and fine sand, he collects in a large
vessel and keeps for the washing. When he is performing his laborious
Book VIII: Extracting Metals | Earth Page of 673 Book VIII: Extracting Metals | Earth
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