Thinking through Molds: Metal Flow and Visualizing the Unseen

Abstract

Thinking through Molds Until techniques like those described in this article were available, clues to how molten metal behaved inside a mold had to be sensed from phenomena occurring outside the mold, including how fast the mold filled, metal splashes, and cracking. But sixteenth-century sources show that the flow of metal through the mold was visualized in advance during the construction of the mold itself. This article focuses on evidence from an anonymous sixteenth-century source that demonstrates such thinking through molds about the unseen.