A man, who should be strong in the wrist, stands on the _furnace_, which has the openings at the top, like a French cooking-stove, and taking off the brick covers from the square aperture, whence rushes out a tongue of green flame, lifts out the _pot_ with a pair of _tongs_, and after the dross is removed by the _skimmer_ or _grunter_, hands it to the pourer, who fills each mould in succession. The fumes which rise from the midst of the coloured fire are peculiar and penetrating, and the zinc eliminated from the molten brass falls in a metallic snowstorm, its flaky particles adhering to everything with which they come in contact, while the resistance of the sand to the metal causes a series of reports like muffled pistol-shots. [Illustration: Large Tongs. Small Tongs. Pot Holes. Skimmer. Grunter.] The brass cocks and plugs used in gas-fittings are all cast in one central stem, like cherries on a stick, their hollow forms being secured by means of _cores_ made of hardened sand placed in the shape impressed in the mould. These are broken off the central stem with a pair of _pincers_ immediately after casting. The ornamental “vases” and larger ornaments which form the body of ordinary gas chandeliers and lamps are formed out of thin metal by a process called “stamping out,” the plates of metal being placed on a hollow die, upon which a heavy hammer, or rather weight, is brought down, being released from a latch and worked by the foot. The depth of the casting would make so heavy a blow necessary that there would be danger of splitting the metal, an accident which is prevented by the introduction of a leaden shape and a layer of clay, which is decreased after each blow of the hammer until the proper depth is gradually secured without injury. The process called “reversing” is an operation which secures a hollow casting, the inner or hollow side being called the “reverse.” For this purpose a mould is made from one in wax, and the impression in the mould hardened, so that another model can be taken from it. This enables the moulder to secure a core which fits the impression in the mould, as one cup would stand inside another; and between the mould containing the sunk pattern and that with the projecting core there are placed strips of black clay, to secure sufficient thickness of metal, by not allowing the hollow to be too accurately filled. The pattern when cast is “laid out” on a hollow hemisphere of iron filled with pitch, and the irregularities of the casting removed by hand tools, _files_, _rasps_, and _knives_. In the case of figures, such as cupids, &c. forming ornaments for candelabra, the various limbs have often to be modelled in separate “cores,” which are afterwards baked hard, and put together like a puzzle-map, imbedded in the sand of the mould previous to casting. This requires great skill to effect successfully, and an experienced “reverser” is a man of mark in the factory.