Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/80

 72 CASTINE CASTING annals of the reign of Henry IV. f>f Oastile, from 1454 to 1474, were published by Jose Miguel de Flores (Madrid, 1787). He also composed a poem relating to the death of Al- fonso V. of Aragon, published by Oclioa (Paris, 1844), in the same volume with the inedited poems of the marquis of Santillana. Castillo is said to have fallen into the hands of Henry's younger brother Alfonso, the pretender to the throne, after the battle of Olmedo ; but little is known about his career, except that he was employed in important missions. ( AS'i'l.N K, a town and port of entry of Han- cock co., Maine, on the E. bank of the Penob- scot, .34 m. below Bangor; pop. in 1870, 1,303. It derives its name from the baron de Castine, a French nobleman, by whom it was settled in 1667, in company with a French colony, who afterward abandoned it in consequence of bor- der wars with the Indians and English colo- nists. In 1760 it was settled by the English. It is situated on a peninsula, enclosing a spa- cious harbor always accessible to vessels of the largest class. Its inhabitants are chiefly en- gaged in ship building and fishing. For the year ending June 30, 1871, there were belong- ing to the port 347 vessels, of 23,997 tons; em- ployed in the cod and mackerel fishery 148, of 6,100 tons; built 15, of 1,561 tons. It has a state normal school and three churches. CASTING, the forming of metals and other substances by pouring them in a melted or liquid state into moulds, and allowing them to solidify by setting or cooling. The term when applied to the casting of metals is used synony- mously with founding, and the place where the work is done is called a foundery. The origin of the casting of metals cannot be traced; it was performed in the earliest times, and from the vestiges discovered seems to have been at first confined to ornamental articles, such as statues, medals, and parts of household fur- niture. The metal chiefly used by the ancients was bronze, and it is an interesting fact that their alloy contained about the same propor- tions of tin and copper as that which is used at the present time. Most of the bronze castings which have been discovered in excavations at Nineveh have been found, when analyzed, to contain about 10 per cent, of tin, the propor- tion now in use for the best quality of statuary bronze. Bronze castings have been found in Egypt which are thought to be 4,000 years old. A cylinder with the name of Pepi, of the sixth dynasty, and other bronze implements of the same age, all of which date more than 2,000 years before the Christian era, bear evi- dence of having been cast in moulds. It is re- lated in the book of Deuteronomy that Og, king of Bashan, had a bedstead of iron, but whether wrought or cast is unknown. The earliest method of working iron was probably like that still in use in India and some other countries. The broken ore was mixed with charcoal and subjected by heat to deoxidation. The semi-plastic mass resulting from this treat- ment was then hammered into a bloom, and this reheated and hammered until malleable iron was produced. It is probable that the metal was a long time used in this way before the melting and casting of it was practised. The account given of the molten calf which Aaron caused to be made of the ornaments brought to him, shows that the art of casting was brought by the Israelites from Egypt. From the description given of the articles made for Solomon's temple by the Tyrian master Hiram (1 Kings, vii.) there can be no doubt that many of them were cast: "For he cast (formed) two pillars of brass, of eighteen cubits high apiece." "And he made two chapiters of molten brass, to set upon the tops of the pillars." "In the plain of Jordan did the king cast them, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zarthan." There is here not only evidence of the casting of bronze (for that is what is meant by " brass "), but also of the material used in making the moulds, which was the same as that used at the present day, namely, loam, and which composes the soil at the place where Hiram built his furnace. The bronze castings of the Assyrians were remark- ably good, particularly those of animals, as ia shown by the figure of a lion found by M. FIG. 1. Bronze Lion from Nineveh. Botta in the excavations in the palace of Khor- sabad. This little statue is thought to have been cast in a single piece. That it is a work of Assyrian art is shown by the cuneiform characters that were found upon it. How long before the fall of Nineveh it was cast can- not be told, but it is probable that some of the bronzes found there are older than the temple of Solomon. In Babylon bronze statuettes have been found. We are told by Herodotus that both the town and palace gates were of this material ; and it would seem from the ac- counts of Diodorus Siculus that they were so massive that they were not opened in the or- dinary manner, but by a machine. Rawlinson assumes that they were cast. Fine works of Grecian art were made in embossed bronze as early as the 7th century B. C., but, according to historians, it was not till that or the follow- ing century that Rhoecus and Theodorus intro- duced bronze castings into Greece, and they