During the eight months which were employed in the work of excavation1 the preparatory works of the casting had been carried on simultaneously2 with extreme rapidity. A stranger arriving at Stones Hill would have been surprised at the spectacle offered to his view.
At 600 yards from the well, and circularly arranged around it as a central point, rose 1,200 reverberating3 ovens, each six feet in diameter, and separated from each other by an interval4 of three feet. The circumference5 occupied by these 1,200 ovens presented a length of two miles. Being all constructed on the same plan, each with its high quadrangular chimney, they produced a most singular effect.
It will be remembered that on their third meeting the committee had decided6 to use cast iron for the Columbiad, and in particular the white description. This metal, in fact, is the most tenacious7, the most ductile8, and the most malleable9, and consequently suitable for all moulding operations; and when smelted10 with pit coal, is of superior quality for all engineering works requiring great resisting power, such as cannon11, steam boilers12, hydraulic13 presses, and the like.
Cast iron, however, if subjected to only one single fusion14, is rarely sufficiently15 homogeneous; and it requires a second fusion completely to refine it by dispossessing it of its last earthly deposits. So long before being forwarded to Tampa Town, the iron ore, molten in the great furnaces of Coldspring, and brought into contact with coal and silicium heated to a high temperature, was carburized and transformed into cast iron. After this first operation, the metal was sent on to Stones Hill. They had, however, to deal with 136,000,000 pounds of iron, a quantity far too costly16 to send by railway. The cost of transport would have been double that of material. It appeared preferable to freight vessels17 at New York, and to load them with the iron in bars. This, however, required not less than sixty- eight vessels of 1,000 tons, a veritable fleet, which, quitting New York on the 3rd of May, on the 10th of the same month ascended18 the Bay of Espiritu Santo, and discharged their cargoes19, without dues, in the port at Tampa Town. Thence the iron was transported by rail to Stones Hill, and about the middle of January this enormous mass of metal was delivered at its destination.
It will easily be understood that 1,200 furnaces were not too many to melt simultaneously these 60,000 tons of iron. Each of these furnaces contained nearly 140,000 pounds weight of metal. They were all built after the model of those which served for the casting of the Rodman gun; they were trapezoidal in shape, with a high elliptical arch. These furnaces, constructed of fireproof brick, were especially adapted for burning pit coal, with a flat bottom upon which the iron bars were laid. This bottom, inclined at an angle of 25 degrees, allowed the metal to flow into the receiving troughs; and the 1,200 converging20 trenches21 carried the molten metal down to the central well.
The day following that on which the works of the masonry22 and boring had been completed, Barbicane set to work upon the central mould. His object now was to raise within the center of the well, and with a coincident axis23, a cylinder24 900 feet high, and nine feet in diameter, which should exactly fill up the space reserved for the bore of the Columbiad. This cylinder was composed of a mixture of clay and sand, with the addition of a little hay and straw. The space left between the mould and the masonry was intended to be filled up by the molten metal, which would thus form the walls six feet in thickness. This cylinder, in order to maintain its equilibrium25, had to be bound by iron bands, and firmly fixed26 at certain intervals27 by cross-clamps fastened into the stone lining28; after the castings these would be buried in the block of metal, leaving no external projection29.
This operation was completed on the 8th of July, and the run of the metal was fixed for the following day.
“This fete of the casting will be a grand ceremony,” said J. T. Maston to his friend Barbicane.
“Undoubtedly,” said Barbicane; “but it will not be a public fete”
“What! will you not open the gates of the enclosure to all comers?”
“I must be very careful, Maston. The casting of the Columbiad is an extremely delicate, not to say a dangerous operation, and I should prefer its being done privately30. At the discharge of the projectile31, a fete if you like — till then, no!”
The president was right. The operation involved unforeseen dangers, which a great influx32 of spectators would have hindered him from averting33. It was necessary to preserve complete freedom of movement. No one was admitted within the enclosure except a delegation34 of members of the Gun Club, who had made the voyage to Tampa Town. Among these was the brisk Bilsby, Tom Hunter, Colonel Blomsberry, Major Elphinstone, General Morgan, and the rest of the lot to whom the casting of the Columbiad was a matter of personal interest. J. T. Maston became their cicerone. He omitted no point of detail; he conducted them throughout the magazines, workshops, through the midst of the engines, and compelled them to visit the whole 1,200 furnaces one after the other. At the end of the twelve-hundredth visit they were pretty well knocked up.
The casting was to take place at twelve o’clock precisely35. The previous evening each furnace had been charged with 114,000 pounds weight of metal in bars disposed cross-ways to each other, so as to allow the hot air to circulate freely between them. At daybreak the 1,200 chimneys vomited36 their torrents37 of flame into the air, and the ground was agitated38 with dull tremblings. As many pounds of metal as there were to cast, so many pounds of coal were there to burn. Thus there were 68,000 tons of coal which projected in the face of the sun a thick curtain of smoke. The heat soon became insupportable within the circle of furnaces, the rumbling39 of which resembled the rolling of thunder. The powerful ventilators added their continuous blasts and saturated41 with oxygen the glowing plates. The operation, to be successful, required to be conducted with great rapidity. On a signal given by a cannon-shot each furnace was to give vent40 to the molten iron and completely to empty itself. These arrangements made, foremen and workmen waited the preconcerted moment with an impatience42 mingled43 with a certain amount of emotion. Not a soul remained within the enclosure. Each superintendent44 took his post by the aperture45 of the run.
Barbicane and his colleagues, perched on a neighboring eminence46, assisted at the operation. In front of them was a piece of artillery47 ready to give fire on the signal from the engineer. Some minutes before midday the first driblets of metal began to flow; the reservoirs filled little by little; and, by the time that the whole melting was completely accomplished48, it was kept in abeyance49 for a few minutes in order to facilitate the separation of foreign substances.
Twelve o’clock struck! A gunshot suddenly pealed50 forth51 and shot its flame into the air. Twelve hundred melting-troughs were simultaneously opened and twelve hundred fiery52 serpents crept toward the central well, unrolling their incandescent53 curves. There, down they plunged54 with a terrific noise into a depth of 900 feet. It was an exciting and a magnificent spectacle. The ground trembled, while these molten waves, launching into the sky their wreaths of smoke, evaporated the moisture of the mould and hurled55 it upward through the vent-holes of the stone lining in the form of dense56 vapor-clouds. These artificial clouds unrolled their thick spirals to a height of 1,000 yards into the air. A savage57, wandering somewhere beyond the limits of the horizon, might have believed that some new crater58 was forming in the bosom59 of Florida, although there was neither any eruption60, nor typhoon, nor storm, nor struggle of the elements, nor any of those terrible phenomena61 which nature is capable of producing. No, it was man alone who had produced these reddish vapors62, these gigantic flames worthy63 of a volcano itself, these tremendous vibrations64 resembling the shock of an earthquake, these reverberations rivaling those of hurricanes and storms; and it was his hand which precipitated65 into an abyss, dug by himself, a whole Niagara of molten metal!
1 excavation | |
n.挖掘,发掘;被挖掘之地 | |
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2 simultaneously | |
adv.同时发生地,同时进行地 | |
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3 reverberating | |
回响,回荡( reverberate的现在分词 ); 使反响,使回荡,使反射 | |
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4 interval | |
n.间隔,间距;幕间休息,中场休息 | |
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5 circumference | |
n.圆周,周长,圆周线 | |
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6 decided | |
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
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7 tenacious | |
adj.顽强的,固执的,记忆力强的,粘的 | |
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8 ductile | |
adj.易延展的,柔软的 | |
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9 malleable | |
adj.(金属)可锻的;有延展性的;(性格)可训练的 | |
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10 smelted | |
v.熔炼,提炼(矿石)( smelt的过去式和过去分词 );合演( costar的过去式和过去分词 );闻到;嗅出 | |
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11 cannon | |
n.大炮,火炮;飞机上的机关炮 | |
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12 boilers | |
锅炉,烧水器,水壶( boiler的名词复数 ) | |
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13 hydraulic | |
adj.水力的;水压的,液压的;水力学的 | |
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14 fusion | |
n.溶化;熔解;熔化状态,熔和;熔接 | |
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15 sufficiently | |
adv.足够地,充分地 | |
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16 costly | |
adj.昂贵的,价值高的,豪华的 | |
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17 vessels | |
n.血管( vessel的名词复数 );船;容器;(具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的)人 | |
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18 ascended | |
v.上升,攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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19 cargoes | |
n.(船或飞机装载的)货物( cargo的名词复数 );大量,重负 | |
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20 converging | |
adj.收敛[缩]的,会聚的,趋同的v.(线条、运动的物体等)会于一点( converge的现在分词 );(趋于)相似或相同;人或车辆汇集;聚集 | |
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21 trenches | |
深沟,地沟( trench的名词复数 ); 战壕 | |
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22 masonry | |
n.砖土建筑;砖石 | |
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23 axis | |
n.轴,轴线,中心线;坐标轴,基准线 | |
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24 cylinder | |
n.圆筒,柱(面),汽缸 | |
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25 equilibrium | |
n.平衡,均衡,相称,均势,平静 | |
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26 fixed | |
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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27 intervals | |
n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 );间隔时间;[数学]区间;(戏剧、电影或音乐会的)幕间休息 | |
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28 lining | |
n.衬里,衬料 | |
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29 projection | |
n.发射,计划,突出部分 | |
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30 privately | |
adv.以私人的身份,悄悄地,私下地 | |
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31 projectile | |
n.投射物,发射体;adj.向前开进的;推进的;抛掷的 | |
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32 influx | |
n.流入,注入 | |
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33 averting | |
防止,避免( avert的现在分词 ); 转移 | |
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34 delegation | |
n.代表团;派遣 | |
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35 precisely | |
adv.恰好,正好,精确地,细致地 | |
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36 vomited | |
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37 torrents | |
n.倾注;奔流( torrent的名词复数 );急流;爆发;连续不断 | |
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38 agitated | |
adj.被鼓动的,不安的 | |
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39 rumbling | |
n. 隆隆声, 辘辘声 adj. 隆隆响的 动词rumble的现在分词 | |
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40 vent | |
n.通风口,排放口;开衩;vt.表达,发泄 | |
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41 saturated | |
a.饱和的,充满的 | |
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42 impatience | |
n.不耐烦,急躁 | |
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43 mingled | |
混合,混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 ); 混进,与…交往[联系] | |
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44 superintendent | |
n.监督人,主管,总监;(英国)警务长 | |
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45 aperture | |
n.孔,隙,窄的缺口 | |
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46 eminence | |
n.卓越,显赫;高地,高处;名家 | |
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47 artillery | |
n.(军)火炮,大炮;炮兵(部队) | |
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48 accomplished | |
adj.有才艺的;有造诣的;达到了的 | |
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49 abeyance | |
n.搁置,缓办,中止,产权未定 | |
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50 pealed | |
v.(使)(钟等)鸣响,(雷等)发出隆隆声( peal的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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51 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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52 fiery | |
adj.燃烧着的,火红的;暴躁的;激烈的 | |
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53 incandescent | |
adj.遇热发光的, 白炽的,感情强烈的 | |
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54 plunged | |
v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 );暴跌;骤降;突降 | |
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55 hurled | |
v.猛投,用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 );大声叫骂 | |
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56 dense | |
a.密集的,稠密的,浓密的;密度大的 | |
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57 savage | |
adj.野蛮的;凶恶的,残暴的;n.未开化的人 | |
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58 crater | |
n.火山口,弹坑 | |
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59 bosom | |
n.胸,胸部;胸怀;内心;adj.亲密的 | |
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60 eruption | |
n.火山爆发;(战争等)爆发;(疾病等)发作 | |
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61 phenomena | |
n.现象 | |
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62 vapors | |
n.水汽,水蒸气,无实质之物( vapor的名词复数 );自夸者;幻想 [药]吸入剂 [古]忧郁(症)v.自夸,(使)蒸发( vapor的第三人称单数 ) | |
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63 worthy | |
adj.(of)值得的,配得上的;有价值的 | |
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64 vibrations | |
n.摆动( vibration的名词复数 );震动;感受;(偏离平衡位置的)一次性往复振动 | |
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65 precipitated | |
v.(突如其来地)使发生( precipitate的过去式和过去分词 );促成;猛然摔下;使沉淀 | |
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