Posted by PeterH on June 18, 2006 at 20:01:03 from 86.130.124.8 user Peter_H.
In Reply to: Re: Pommies and ceramic science posted by John Nichols on June 18, 2006 at 18:04:04:
AR must have seen one of these crucibles, any idea how big they are and the dimensions?
It seems to me that the only way to work it out is via the illustrations in PP. According to the diagram on p 309, the crucible went in the middle of the furnace. Therefore the crucible support, the iron bars, would have to reach the sides at the middle. The illustration on p 319 shows the furnace in action. Very roughly, I would have thought the support bars would have needed to be at least 1.5 feet long, maybe 2 feet. There is a close-up of the crucible and support on p 315, but it does not show the full extent of the iron bars. Let us say that they extended for a few inches more beyond the picture. I would say that a rough height for the crucible would be about 8-9 inches.
Captain Flint had a 'nest of crucibles' (which Peggy nearly dropped). I take this to mean that they were all different sizes, stacked inside each other, with the lids stored separately. Dick took the biggest one, but still thought that one 'rather small'. Perhaps it was only six inches high.
Sorry, I'm afraid the above is very unscientific. Unfortunately, AR didn't give measurements. Can anyone be more precise?