in many pounds._
_When all is done, take your Shot out of the Pail of water, and put it in a
Frying-pan over the fire to dry them, which must be done warily, still
shaking them that they melt not; and when they are dry you may separate the
small from the great, in Pearl Sives made of Copper or Lattin let into one
another, into as many sizes at you please. But if you would have your Shot
larger then the Trencher makes them, you may do it with a Stick, making
them trickle out of the Ladle, as hath been said._
_If the Trencher be but toucht a very little when the Lead stops from going
through it, and be not too cool, it will drop again, but it it better not
to touch it at all. At the melting of the Lead take care that there be no
kind of Oyl, Grease, or the like, upon the Pots, or Ladles, or Trencher._
_The Chief cause of this Globular Figure of the Shot, seems to be the
_Auripigmentum_; for, as soon as it is put in among the melted Lead, it
loses its shining brightness, contracting instantly a grayish film or skin
upon it, when you scum it to make it clean with the Ladle. So that when the
Air comes at the falling drop of the melted Lead, that skin constricts them
every where equally: but upon what account, and whether this be the true
cause, is left to further disquisition._
Much after this same manner, when the Air is exceeding cold through which
it passes; do we find the drops of Rain, falling from the Clouds, congealed
into round Hail-stones by the freezing Ambient.
To which may be added this other known Experiment, That if you gently let
fall a drop of _water_ upon small _sand_ or _dust_, you shall find, as it
were, an artificial _round stone_ quickly generated. I cannot upon this
occasion omit the mentioning of the strange kind of _Grain_, which I have
observed in a _stone_ brought from _Kettering_ in _Northamptonshire_, and
therefore called by Masons _Kettering-Stone_, of which see the Description.
Which brings into my mind what I long since observed in the fiery Sparks
that are struck out of a Steel. For having a great desire to see what was
left behind, after the Spark was gone out, I purposely struck fire over a
very white piece of Paper, and observing diligently where some conspicuous
sparks went out, I found a very little black spot no bigger then the point
of a Pin, which through a _Microscope_ appeared to be a perfectly round
Ball, looking much like a polisht ball of Steel, insomuch that I was able
to
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