About the Book

The Encyclopedia of Founding (1894) is Simpson Bolland's A-to-Z of the foundry — some twelve hundred entries covering every material, tool, furnace and trick of the moulder's art, from Acetate to Zinc. Bolland, a Yorkshire-trained founder who became the American trade's great teacher, wrote it for the men at the sand bench.

The range is the charm: how bells and cannon are founded, why brass is not bronze, what makes a Hessian crucible the best of its class, and enough practical chemistry to explain what the fire is actually doing. Each entry cross-references its neighbors, exactly as Bolland printed them.

This digital edition presents the complete keyed text of the 1894 edition, one entry to a page, browsable by subject and A to Z.

This site reproduces the complete text of the original 1894 edition, digitized page by page from the original printing. The book is in the public domain.