5^2 EORTIa’s TSAVEl^S IN SWEDEN.

From Gripfholm to Oker is a mile. There is not ah inn in the place, and no otheraccommodation than what the houfe of Mr. Vahrendorf the proprietor affords, or thofeof feme of the officers belonging to the foundry. So that in cafe of Mr. Vahrendorfbeing abfent it may not be amifs to be provided with a letter from him : it will be Hillbetter to wait until he may himfelf be there.

This place is very interefting on account of its handfome foundry for cannon.

Cannon foundry. The ore which is made ufe for founding cannon comes from fix dif>ferent mines : it Ihould be poor or at leaft mixed fo that the aggregate may contain nomore than thirty per hundred of metal, and particularly it Ihould contain none of thatquality which breaks when hot. The fird: roading of the ore is carried on in the famemanner as at Fahlun in the open air. There are two furnaces for the fufion, each aftedupon by two bellows ; they yield a fchippund of iron per hour for cannon : every twen-ty-four hours one piece of twenty-four pounds and one four-pounder are call, or onethirty-fix-pounder. Thefe 'two furnaces require three hundred and twelve tons ofwood daily, and the whole, including the other fires, three hundred and eighty. Tentons coll 16 fchillings. The moulds are made of the country clay, and are hoopedwith iron to render them more firm. Round the fliape for the mould hards of tow areput mixed with tallow and clay, over which potter’s earth or clay mixed with fand.Five men are occupied in falhioning the earth about the mould when cannon is calling,three knead the clay while two turn the fliape ; the clay is put on crofswiie : whenthe mould is completed there are no more than three perfons employed in placing theearth about it. It requires two days for the mould to get thoroughly dry ; for thispurpofe, when the wood, is taken from it, coal and fmail wood are burnt within andcoal alone without, which is turned about as the mould dries. The melting furnacesare very large, built of granite, and the Hones are fupported by maffes of iron fromeleven to twelve feet long, in Ihape of beams. The two cannon of twenty-four andfour pounds are caff; in eight minutes; in three hours time, notwithftanding thepieces be yet red hot, the fand is removed in which the mould is placed. This is in awooden vat of eleven feet deep, and eight feet in diameter: conceive but an inftanthow violent the heat the men mult experience at the bottom of this vat, employed fonear this burning mafs in removing and throwing out the fand : they are confequentlyvery quickly relieved.

In fix hours’ time the mafs has acquired a fufficient confidence to allow of the piecebeing withdrawn ; but it cannot be bored until after it has laid two or three days in theopen air. The fird operation then is to cut off the head of the cannon which is atlead a foot in length : this is done at fird with a round plate of deel more than fixlines in thicknefs ; the head is cut on three fides by turning this round plate, the pieceremaining motionlefs, which operation in a piece of twenty-four pounds takes up fixhours. By that time the head holds but a very flender piece on the three fides $ ironwedges are then druck into the part cut by a mallet of a lifpound in weight. Themore excellent the iron the greater the length of time before the head breaks off; ithas taken up four minutes when we have been prefent: after this the furplus at theend of the cannon is cut off, and the end polilhed, which takes up two hours; then theboring begins at firft horizontally, the piece remaining immoveable : one man and »boy only are employed in working the wheel, which forces forward and turns thewedge in the piece ; this wedge or rather this bar is two inches thick, but the mouthof the cannon is feven lines more, owing to the fteel end fitted to the bar, which fervesas it turns to bore the gun, being one inch and a half. The firft hole is drilled, after-wards it is bored perpendicularly, the borer turning and the piece being depreffed to

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