Casting A Monster Cylinder For Her Majestys Armour-Plated Frigate Agincourt At Maudslay...

Casting a monster cylinder for Her Majesty's armour-plated frigate Agincourt at the foundry of Maudslay, Sons, and Field, Westminster-road, London, 1862. 'This cylinder...is intended for a pair of engines of 1350-horsepower...Its diameter is 101 inches. The metal, which weighed 30 tons, was melted in four cupola-furnaces, and run thence into three ladles lined with clay to the thickness of an inch and a half; these ladles were lifted by travelling-cranes into their proper position, and the molten metal was poured into the mould. The men in this fiery furnace, with iron rods in their hands, are engaged in preventing impurities from getting into the mould; whilst, at the same time, each is occupied in screening his face from the fierce glare which beats upon him from the fiery mass of metal, liquid with heat, and seemingly threatening annihilation to all. The engines of the Agincourt are larger than any yet fitted for the Admiralty...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862. Creator: Unknown. (Photo by The Print Collector/Heritage Images via Getty Images)