When this counterpart table has been finished, and all the patterns indented in the sand, it is carried to the melter, who, after enlarging the principal jet of the counterpart, and making the cross jets to the various patterns, and sprinkling them as before with mill dust, it is set in the oven to be sufficiently dried to receive the liquid metal. When both parts are sufficiently dry, they are joined together by the pins, and to prevent these from being forced open by the pressure of the liquid metal, the tables are further secured by screwed bolts or wedges. The furnace for melting is somewhat similar to a smith's forge, with a chimney over it, and a pair of large bellows; the hearth is of masonry or brickwork, secured by an outer rim of iron. The fire-place, which is in the centre, is a cavity of 12 to 18 inches square, and reaching down to the floor of the foundry. The lowest part of this cavity constitutes the ash-pit and air-chamber, and is divided from the upper portion by an iron grating; on this the fuel is deposited, in the centre of which is placed a covered crucible, containing the metal under fusion, which is accelerated by keeping the fuel in which it is completely imbedded in vivid combustion by the continued action of the bellows.

When the fusion is perfect the crucible is withdrawn from the fire by the caster, with a pair of long tongs adapted to gripe it firmly, and with which he pours into the master jet of each mould until they are filled. As soon as this is done water is sprinkled over the tables to cool and fix the metal; after which the tables are unfastened, and the new castings taken out, to be finished by filing, scouring, burnishing, turning, etc. as the work may require. The sand is now taken out of the frames, to be worked up again for the next casting: by repeated use the sand becomes black, by the charcoal collected from the foundry, which does not, however, unfit it for further employment. To reduce the expense and weight of casting large masses in solid metal, recourse is often had to forming them hollow, which process is distinguished by the term core casting, as it is necessary to have a" core or heart of nearly the shape of the external form of the pattern. This core is usually made of clay, mixed and kneaded with crucible dust, and is suspended by wires in its place, with a space around it to receive the metal; in small articles, however, it is usual to fill up the space by coating the core to that extent with wax, which melts as the metal flows to supply its place.

When the pattern is of a complicated form, and a difficulty arises in getting out the core, it is usually separated into several pieces, which are joined together after being cast. In many of the Birmingham manufactures the cores occupy so much of the pattern, that the metal left is not thicker than a shilling. The business of a brass founder, contrary to that of an iron-founder, extends to the finishing of the articles he casts; and not only to this, but to the manufacture of brass goods that are not cast or founded at all, being made entirely from wrought or rolled metal. A large proportion of the Birmingham manufacture of cabinet brass work is formed out of sheet metal, by pressure between dies after the manner of coining: such goods are in consequence cheaply made, and frequently are impressed with very tasteful and elaborate designs. The castings, when taken out of the sand, have first to be cleaned up and completed, as they are seldom free from defects; the cores are filed off, and the small cavities filled up with metal or solder; they are afterwards finished, according to the nature of the article, by filing, turning, burnishing, and lackering.

The superior kinds of brass work are gilded, which preserves them better than lacker, and constitutes the article called or molu.

In the founding of statues, busts, etc three things in particular require attention; namely, the mould, the wax, and shell or coat, the inner mould or core, so called from being in the middle or heart of the statue. In preparing the core, the moulder is required to give it the attitude and contour of the figure intended to be founded. The use of the core is to support the wax and shell, to lessen the weight, and save the metal. The core is made and raised on an iron grate, sufficiently strong to sustain it; and it is farther strengthened by bars or ribs of iron. The core is made of strong potter's clay, tempered with water, and mixed up with horse-dung and hair, all kneaded and incorporated together; with this it is modelled and fashioned previously to the sculptor's laying over it the wax; some moulders use plaster of Paris and sifted brick-dust, mixed together with water, for their cores. The iron bars which support the core are so adjusted that they can be taken from out of the figure after it is founded, and the holes are restored by solder, etc.; but it is necessary in full sized figures to leave some of the iron bars affixed to the figure to steady its projecting parts.

After the core is finished, and got tolerably firm and dry, the operation of laying on the waxen covering to represent the figure is performed, which must be all done, wrought, and fashioned, by the sculptor himself, and by him adjusted to the core. Some sculptors work the wax separately, and afterwards dispose and arrange it on the ribs of iron, filling up the void spaces in the middle afterwards with liquid plaster and brick-dust, by which plan the core is made as, or in proportion to, the sculptor's progress in working the wax model. Care must be taken, however, in modelling the wax in both cases, to make it of an uniform substance, in order to the metal being so in the work, of which the wax is its previous representative. When the waxen model is finished to the core, or adapted and filled afterwards, small tubes of wax are fixed perpendicularly to it from top to bottom, to serve not only as jets to convey the melted metal to all parts of the work, but as vent holes to allow a passage to the air generated by the heated brass in flowing into the mould, and which, if not admitted readily to escape, would occasion so much disorder in it as would much injure the beauty of the work.