Among them was the brisk Bilsby, Tom Hunter, Colonel Blomsberry, Major Elphinstone, General Morgan, and _tutti quanti_, to whom the casting of the Columbiad was a personal business.

J.T.Maston constituted himself their cicerone; he did not excuse them any detail; he led them about everywhere, through the magazines, workshops, amongst the machines, and he forced them to visit the 1,200 furnaces one after the other.

At the end of the 1,200th visit they were rather sick of it.
The casting was to take place precisely at twelve o'clock; the evening before each furnace had been charged with 114,000 lbs.

of metal in bars disposed crossway to each other so that the warm air could circulate freely amongst them.

Since early morning the 1,200 chimneys had been pouring forth volumes of flames into the atmosphere, and the soil was shaken convulsively.