Furnace, vats and strainer, with a framed mechanism
Apparatus and pyrotechnic sketches; recipe text in a later hand, omitted from the critical transcription
This opening is filled with recipe-style writing in a different, later hand that the critical edition left untranscribed, so its content is not read out here. The left page shows a man stoking a cylindrical brick furnace, two shallow basins, a tall cylindrical vat, small heaps of material, and a funnel-shaped strainer suspended so that it drips into a round tub below. The right page shows a tall rectangular frame in which a small figure stands pulling a cord beneath a hinged arm, with two small spiked circular forms above like bursting charges. Further untranscribed text in the later hand runs beneath both pages.
On this page
Furnace, vats and a suspended strainer
The left half shows a man stoking a cylindrical masonry furnace with an arched mouth, two shallow bowls, a large cylindrical vat, small heaps of material, and a funnel-shaped strainer hung so that it drips into a round tub below. The assembly reads as apparatus for boiling, straining and refining materials. Recipe text in a later hand accompanies it but is not transcribed.
Framed mechanism and bursting charges
The right half shows a tall rectangular frame in which a small figure stands pulling a cord, with a hinged arm across the top, and two small circular forms high on the page that radiate spikes like bursting charges. Together with the accompanying untranscribed recipe text, the sketches read as the preparation and firing of powder charges.