Follow-board
The Encyclopedia of Founding (1892)
A turn-over board on which to ram the nowel. When the pattern has a flat face a plain, true board suffices; but should there be any deviation from a plain surface, the board is shaped to fit, so that the pattern may rest firmly at every part and not be injured by the pressure exerted when the ramming takes place. The value of these boards is enhanced by forming in or on the board whatever projections or depressions are needed to make a completed parting when it has been turned over, leaving little or nothing to do but lay on the parting-sand and proceed to ram the cope. See ROLLING OVER; MATCH-PART; MATCH-PLATE. Fonderie a Calabasse.--A small Belgic iron-foundry for the production of light castings at short notice. About four 500-pound heats may be taken daily from a furnace very similar in appearance to an ordinary ladle, with trunnions that rest upon standards, and furnished with handles for turning. The ladle is placed under a hood against the wall, and, when it is desired to melt, it is lined with loam and surmounted with a sheet-iron extension, also lined and provided with a hole at its lower edge for introducing the blast-pipe. A hand-fan, equal to 1000 revolutions per minute, enables them to obtain very hot metal. When the fuel, which fills both ladle and extension, has been brought to a glowing heat by a soft blast, the metal is charged, and the full force applied until all is melted, when the extension is lifted off, slag and cinder removed, and the metal is ready for the moulds. The percentage of fuel is high, but the convenience is great, and the simplicity of the whole apparatus furnishes a good opportunity for those with small capital, or for special purposes at any foundry. See CUPOLA.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The follow-board described by The Encyclopedia of Founding in 1892 still does exactly the same job, and jobbing and hobby foundries still cut shaped boards so an awkward pattern beds firmly while the drag is rammed. What has shrunk is its share of the work: production casting moved to metal match-plates on automatic jolt-squeeze and high-pressure moulding lines during the twentieth century, and since the 2000s sand moulds for one-off and prototype work are often printed directly by binder-jetting machines, with no pattern or board at all. The vocabulary has also aged — "nowel" for the bottom half of the mould is now almost always "drag". The little Belgian "fonderie lfurfurnace melting 500-pound heats in a lined ladle under a hand-driven fan has gone entirely; the small shop with modest capital now buys a gas-fired crucible furnace or a small electric induction unit.
Written for this edition, 2026.