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Book XI: Silver Separation

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BOOK XI.                                              501
it in this case, when it used formerly to be produced at Puteoli from lead
alone when melted by a fierce fire in the cupellation furnace.8 Afterward
these cakes of lead are carried into the lead store-room.
The cakes of copper, put into wheelbarrows, are carried into the third
part of the building, where each is laid upon a saddle, and is broken up by
the impact of successive blows from the iron-shod stamp. This machine
is made by placing upon the ground a block of oak, five feet long and three feet
wide and thick ; it is cut out in the middle for a length of two feet and two
palms, a width of two feet, and a depth of three palms and two digits, and is
open in front ; the higher part of it is at the back, and the wide part lies flat
in the block. In the middle of it is placed a bronze saddle. Its base
is a palm and two digits wide, and is planted between two masses of
lead, and extends under them to a depth of a palm on both sides.
The whole saddle is three palms and two digits wide, a foot long, and
8This is, no doubt, a reference to Pliny's statement (xxxiu, 35) regarding litharge
at Puteoli. This passage from Pliny is given in the footnote on p. 466. Puteoli was situated on
the Bay of Naples.
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